Author Archives: admin

About admin

Born and raised in Lower Macungie Township in the village of East Texas. B.A. in Political Science from Slippery Rock University. Co-owner of Bar None Weddings & Entertainment. I love and care about my hometown and frequently blog about local issues that I think are important.

Wrapping up TIF

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The TIF for Hamilton Crossings passed tonight 3-2.

Brian Higgins yes
Ryan Conrad yes
Jim Lancsek yes
Ron Beitler no
Doug Brown no

The bottom line is this. The Township will be getting a new and much anticipated shopping center. One that I believe was a certainty with or without the TIF. And that is great news for residents. According to one poll, over 80% of residents support the project but not necessarily the TIF funding.

I shared this basic sentiment as I generally supported the project but had concerns with misusing a funding mechanism designed for distressed communities.

I sincerely believe the township could have and should maintained more revenue resources (100% of revenue instead siphoning off 50% back to the developer). This is revenue I believe we’ll eventually need over the course of the next 20 years to mitigate the giant strip centers inevitable and unpredicted negative impacts. These impacts are normal with rapid development of the type LMT will see over the next 20 years as LVPC predicts our population will continue to boom. These concerns relate primarily to traffic but also other issues as well. For example, this project will make it harder to rely on the state police. The traffic issue is compounded by the fact that the traffic impact fee did not apply to the project. The impact fee is designed to give us the resources to make future improvements. I honestly believe we ended up being the “dumb money at the card table” too quick to give away important resources better served dealing with future impacts.

Every land development of this type and magnitude comes with the good (more shopping options, jobs ect) but also the bad. (traffic, crime ect) The challenge for leaders is to mitigate the bad as much as we can. This is why I believe the decision to forfeit critical and much needed revenue (esp. in light of recent tax increases )was fundamentally shortsighted.

Huge part of smart growth is accounting for financial health over multiple lifecycles. It’s the longview. That means setting up the township to be financially strong over the long term. Its seeking net positive ROI beyond the immediate windfall. Tonight by passing TIF we failed to do that.

So to wrap this issue up we’re getting the new center…. But we were always getting the new center. We’ll just have less resources to insure its negatives don’t eventually outweigh its positives. And the developer will have a slightly more padded profit line. They are clear winners. But the community will have more local shopping options and the jobs that come with them. Like I said, +’s and -‘s. But overall inevitable progress forward.

After the vote I’m mostly disappointed in myself that I wasn’t able to make a more compelling argument to get other Commissioners who voted yes to take a harder look at the big picture.

Learn more about Hamilton Crossings

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To blog or not to blog

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Mike Schlossberg is the State Rep. from the neighboring 132nd district. He writes a blog called “Political Fails: When politics, government and Social Media collide”. As a proponent of politicians using social media, basically he covers the do’s and don’ts. As an elected official who is active on twitter, facebook & my own blog it’s definitely a page on my RSS feed.

This AM he tackled the subject of politicians blogging. Obviously, I blog. And I think its important to do so. I generally agree with his pro’s and con’s. Here are a couple more thoughts…

+’s
 In depth posts +1 – “Twitter and Facebook updates have to be short to get to the point.  There is usually no room for nuance or details in these types of format.” Definitely agree with Mike here. The negatives of T and FB are that often the character limits result in watering down of complicated issues. This leads to posts of a black and white polarizing nature. The main benefit of a blog is it allows me to expand on thoughts. Does this lead to longer posts? Yes. But I think we don’t give voters enough credit for having an attention span to really dig into the nuances of issues. I think my page views and emails they generate reinforce that.

Easy integration +1 – Much of the traffic to my blog is generated from T+FB. If I can pique someones interest with a short post, they then have the option to check out the blog for more. I sort of look at it like this. My blog is a soapbox. Twitter is a megaphone and FB a place to converse. All 3 sort of work in conjunction.

Ill add: I blog so people know what I’m thinking. I think I owe that to the people who vote. But I also blog because it helps me parse out and organize my thoughts on issues. I write a preview of most every BOC meeting. Is it time consuming? Yes. But well worth it. It makes me take the time to be able to write thoughtfully about every issue on an upcoming agenda. In LMT we’re part time Commissioners. My blog + practice of previewing meetings is my prep time. It’s duel purpose.

-‘s

Mikes #1 – Time commitment +1 – “Doing a regular blog entry takes a lot of time, and sometimes it also takes a good chunk of research and editing.” YES. I’m lucky in that owning my business let’s me make my own schedule. This is huge. If it wasnt for this the amount of blogging I do would be tough. I’m also not yet married and have no kids. This is also big. That of course is changing soon. But for now I make the time commitment work since I think its important to do so.

Commenters: “Online commenters are frequently just the worst kinds of people.” – Yes, agreed. Look anywhere and you see it. Anonymous trolls in particular. Mike again is right. Taking the anonymity of comments away is the best way to combat this. I do this by using a comment plug-in that uses FB as a vehicle. The disadvantage is that only ppl with FB accounts can comment. But when weighed with potential for comments to be taken over by trolls its worth it.

End of the day Mikes advice is to blog under two circumstances.
1. Have time to do it. – For now, I do. Once kids are in the picture that may change.
2. Have readership to justify. – I think I do. I average about 125 views with a day good mix of returning and unique. On days I post about hot button topics that number spikes dramatically. All time high is in the 500’s. On slow days it trickles to a couple dozen. Bottom line is no matter how much it helps me think through issues, if no one at all read my blog would I still do it? Doubtful.

I’ll add one more. I just enjoy doing it. I like to blog. I like social media. Its not a burden for me. At my core I’m a policy wonk. I enjoy writing about issues. I enjoy talking to people about issues. Particularly smart growth issues. I expand on that with cross posts on national blogs like smartgrowthforconservatives.com and strongtowns.org. I like writing about and thinking about things I care about therefore blogging is natural fit.

Other local elected officials who blog:
Dr. Ziad Munson EPSD
State Senator Sen John Eichelberger

Broken hand…..

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35 year olds have no business trying to make diving outfield catches in beer league softball. As a result of those shenanigans I now have a broken hand . . . 2 fractured metacarpals. Hand Doc appt. Thurs.

Blogging/social media will continue but with much shorter and more concise posts. (That might be a good thing?!)

Anyone know good dictation software?

Softball Fail

Softball Fail

 

Resulting in this....

Resulting in this….

 

Build where the jobs are needed and returns highest. The Allentown re-industrialization plan.

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Allentown city officials unveiled the second phase of a long term plan to bring industrial and manufacturing companies back to the region at a public meeting Thursday. The plan is being crafted by Camoin & Bergmann Associates.

This is important on multiple levels: Smart growth is creating new jobs where people need them the most and where the infrastructure already exists.  When we do this we get the highest ROI on investments. When that happens we keep taxes lower.

With a documented (albeit slow) return of manufacturing jobs to the US, Allentown must position itself to compete. We can help accomplish this by removing the costly array of state, local and federal programs built into the development process that encourage growth in costly locations where taxpayers inevitably directly and indirectly subsidize sprawl.

From the WFMZ link – “Bergman Associates’ planner Dan Sundell says ‘You get a lot of tax incentives and assistance by building [in Allentown],” he said. “It’s a big advantage over open land outside of the city.” – This is true, but the problem remains that we now also massively subsidize greenfield sprawl. And by doing this, the taxpayer return on investment is alarmingly low. 

My preference of course is to remove all development subsidies especially ones that culminate at the federal level. If we would do this and allow the market to work then cities would naturally benefit because of their inherent strengths some of which I mention above. (location, efficiency, services ect.) But a nice first step forward would be to simply reduce sprawl subsidies which currently provide more incentive to build on a virgin greenfield by artificially making it cheaper to do so. Developers have the right to build where they see fit, but they do not have the right to subsidies.

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Corporate Welfare

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Last night at the township BOC meeting one colleague fellow Commissioner Ryan Conrad asserted that participating in the TIF is not “corporate welfare”.

It’s important residents understand where Commissioners stand on issues. This issue in particular outlines stark philosophical differences and approaches to land development, development subsidies and who should shoulder the costs of impacts both immediate and projected. Therefore it’s crucial residents understand very clearly without semantic interference where each Commissioner stands. Every four years we receive a job review in the form of an election. Therefore, I would be remiss if I didn’t clearly state that I fundamentally disagree with Mr. Conrads assertion in the strongest of terms. 

“Corporate welfare” in this instance has been used as a rallying cry for residents who by and large support the project but without the 20 year tax forfeiture. Some institutional supporters have tried to use semantics and word games to insist this doesn’t qualify as corporate welfare or that the townships decision on participating in the TIF could somehow derail the project. This is a disingenuous game and unfair to residents.

The facts remain:

1. If Lower Macungie participates in the TIF 50% of the developers incremental taxes will be siphoned away from the township.

2. The money instead is siphoned back to the developer and other private interests through LCIDA where it would be used to pay back construction bonds for basic improvements that are required of all developers seeking to do business in the township.

3. With this TIF, tax money is forfeited and instead used to pay for what otherwise would be the responsibility of the developer. In other words the normal costs of doing business. Infrastructure costs every other developer has to pay for themselves. In this case it is the bare minimum infrastructure improvements required by Penndot to build a shopping center of this magnitude.

4. The bottom line is that this mechanism pads the developers bottom line. TIF will increase profits of private business interests and decrease the return received by taxpayers. It is preferential treatment for one chosen business. It is a subsidy of both of the sellers flawed piece of land and of the buyer. It is a distortion of the market that will hurt other local businesses.

5. While you can argue that creating the TIF district could pull the plug on the entire TIF, (including the school district) the townships participation (remember they are 2 separate ordinances and two separate votes) is purely symbolic and will have absolutely zero impact on the developer building the project. In other words, with or without the township participating in the TIF this shopping center is coming. This is a certainty. I can’t be anymore clear about that. There have been attempts to blur this line. 

Lower Macungie’s participation in the TIF is giving one developer receiving special treatment for purely symbolic reasons. We are a relatively affluent township with a healthy and robust economic climate, therefore TIF is unnecessary and borderline egregious to even consider.

A vote for the TIF is a vote to take money out of the pocket of Lower Macungie residents and funnel it to private interests over a 20 year period. This is compounded by the fact some Commissioners seated on this board just recently voted to raise taxes.

If any Commissioner believes this is the right thing to do, then they should stand by that decision and not try to rationalize it by making statements like “The developer still pays 100% of it’s taxes” while ignoring the fact that half those taxes are siphoned away from the township back to the developer by padding their bottom line through the Lehigh County Industrial Authority. The other misleading notion I’ve heard is no “corporation is receiving a direct subsidy. Last time I checked TCH development and The Goldenberg group are in this to make money. They are indeed both private businesses who will benefit from TIF subsidy in terms of increased profits. No, the “nameplates” Costco and Target aren’t the direct beneficiaries but they are indirect beneficiaries. No matter how to slice it private interests are the gov’t sponsored winners in this shell game and taxpayers and other local businesses are the losers.

 

Guest blog – Jim Palmquist: Walk this way: Lower Macungie becoming pedestrian friendly

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The following was submitted by Jim Palmquist the chair of the LMT walkways group. You can view the website here. It also appeared as an op-ed in The Morning call.

Surprise, surprise. Lower Macungie Township, the place where almost everyone drives wherever they go, has a major section that is almost completely walkable. About a quarter of Lower Macungie residents live in a walkable community! Who knew?

Lower Macungie is a place where thousands of people can walk or ride bikes on walkways to a drug store, grocery store, state liquor store, medical and dental offices, banks, churches, convenience stores, restaurants and other merchants and services.

walk way

 
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Got a phone call from owner of a business today….

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Got a phone call from a business owner today. He owns a business in the Giant shopping center. I will let them name their business should they choose to if they publicly address the Lower Macungie BOC which I encouraged them to do. If you have been following this issue for awhile they attended a county meeting and spoke out.

They honestly believe their small business will absolutely be hurt by Hamilton Crossings. When you own a small eatery in a shopping center you count on foot traffic to drive customers into your place of business. The “Giant shopping center” is located just blocks away from Hamilton Crossings and is clearly struggling.

Now please understand one thing. And this is my opinion but I think the business owner shares it. Competition is one thing. Business owners accept this. As a township Commissioner I encourage it. It’s survival of the fittest thing. The problem is when the playing field is skewed. Plain and simply TIF’s when abused and utilized in a community that isn’t distressed disrupts the free market. Utilizing this TIF in this area where an existing inventory of businesses have not benefitted from the same treatment will hurt other business owners. Many small businesses in the “Giant” shopping center will now have to compete with potential new business in a government chosen shopping center on an uneven playing field. At least one owner is certain this will hurt him and his employees.

Does anyone out there believe that this is fair? If so I’d love to hear why.

Competition is a fact of life for small business. It leads to more options and better pricing/service. When this happens the consumer wins. My problem is it’s fundamentally unfair to choose the winners with this kind of government intervention in a community that isn’t distressed. Hardworking people will be hurt by this TIF. Does anyone out there believe Lower Macungie is a distressed economy?

Above is a picture of 5 empty storefronts in the Giant shopping center. This is just one corner. In total there is over a dozen vacancies.

Above is a picture of 5 empty storefronts in the Giant shopping center. This is just one corner. In total there is over a dozen vacancies.

*Additional note: Some have said “well this shopping center is run down” “That’s why no one wants to shop there”. I don’t disagree. The “Giant/Redners” shopping center is one of the worse “Strip Malls” in the whole Lehigh Valley. It’s dated. Ugly. Terrible. Traffic flows poorly. Some locations the parking lots are downright dangerous.

To that point, note that the same company owns the “Kohls” side. And they did acknowledge this. At least in terms of spending some major money on recent renovations of. This included new landscaping and a facade renovation (Kohls). From what I understand more improvements are coming and they are slowly making there way to the “other” side where giant is.

the point is, this is the natural order. Your shopping center is crummy and because of that you can’t attract good tenants? Then invest money and fix it. Or fail in the open and free market. What isn’t natural is when a gov’t chooses a winner. Then that new shopping center which “needed” the special treatment succeeds because it’s allowed to divert 50% of it’s taxes to repay bonds for 20 years. 

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Time to sign kids up for playground program

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Registration is May 28th for the LMT playground program! Connections to neighborhood parks create a vibrant sense of place. They are one of the quickest and most effective ways to cultivate a sense of community and improve our quality of life. The extremely successful Lower Macungie playground program has been doing this for years. I remember participating in a version of the longstanding playground program as a kid many years ago. My neighborhood playground was and still is East Texas Park. These connections to my hometown are a big reason why I decided to stay here in Lower Mac in the same neighborhood I grew up in. In fact this summer I’ll be getting married in the ET park gazebo.

How to enroll:
LMT residents may enroll children, ages 6 to 11, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday, May 28, into the 7 week summer playground program. More information here.

The cost is $110, and the program is open to LMT residents and runs from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Monday, June 23, to Friday, August 8 at the community center 3400 Brookside Road. The program offers arts & crafts, games, sports and a few pool days. Each program includes a series of special events including:

  • Special Game Days
  • Pizza Days
  • ‘Rita’ Days
  • Complete the Playground Season with a fabulous Round-Up Day.

The program is offered at the following parks: Quarry Park, Church Lane Park, East Texas Park, Wild Cherry Park and Hills At Lockridge Park.

Pictured: East Texas Park Gazebo

Pictured: East Texas Park Gazebo

Connect with Lower Macungie:
Official LMT Facebook Page
My Commissioner Page 
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Seattle and Mininum wage

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“A state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” – Brandeis 

The quote above very succinctly sums up a fundamental notion why I am right of center politically. I believe there is no more important conviction then that of our bottom up system of gov’t paired with a system of checks and balances on the power of the federal gov’t.

This is related to why I support Seattle’s right raise the local min wage even though I disagree with the policy and think the impacts will be adverse.

Why?  As a nation of state and of local Govt we are the great laboratory of democracy. The federal gov’t should not overstep it’s bounds and dictate what a local minimum wage should be set at. Seattle has the right to raise it’s min wage if they choose. Even though I personally believe in the end it will hurt their economy that jobs will be lost and it will hurt small business. Seattle has the right to self govern. 

The fact remains, I can’t say that with certainty that Seattle’s efforts will end in failure. We can only model, predict and forecast the affects on the local economy. There is always a chance I and others who draw the same conclusions are wrong.  If the increase does indeed work out in Seattle then other cities/places should be able to freely choose to adopt or not to adopt. If enough places in Washington have success then eventually the state would consider. That incremental change would be a symptom of success. Success breeds success. Failure stops an idea in it’s tracks.

A philosophy where policy is experimented on at the state and local level first, before it is on the national level is the basis for my politics. I believe in the 10th amendment. Federal gov’t responsibilities are outlined by the constitution. This allows for a diverse patchwork of lower government policies and practices. This is the great laboratory of democracy that is the United States. It’s what makes us special. Unfortunately, the tenth amendment has been eroded over time.

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Public Comment from TIF Hearing

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Here is the youtube video of the meeting. Public Comment on TIF happens from 1:12 to 2:18. My comments are 2:20-2:31

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g01a9peFv64

There were different reported tallys of speakers and positions in the papers. This is understandable as trying to keep track as your processing the comments is tough. Here is my best shot at an accurate tally after re-watching the comment this AM. This includes very brief synoposis of each speakers content. *Updated this AM adding two more in the FOR TIF column. They were very quick comments that I initially missed when fast forwarding through the comment portion.

29 TOTAL 26 residents 3 non-residents
12 AGAINST TIF
7 *For TIF
8 Neutral regarding TIF
5 Other project comments unrelated to TIF
1 Cemetery concern
1 For Project no comment TIF
1 On the fence
2 Special interest

*5 organized Labor in favor of TIF

CLEAR AGAINST TIF (12)
1. Charles Rhoads – Resident, “Picking favorites” “Retail Crime”
2. Natalie Kravitz – Resident, “What is TIF?” Never defined. “Costco over 100/share, Why do they need TIF”
3. Ira Lehrich – Resident, developer – “I’m for No TIF” Costco stockholder. “Costco claims TIF is developer business Costco has no input” “welfare” “support project, not TIF”
4. Arlene Dabrow – Resident, “Other centers have vacant space” “fairness – justify giving money to one developer over others” “EIT may leave township” Word games by developer unfair –  “Average income to median income”
5. Chris Donatelli – Resident, “Project state of flux last 5 years.” “Current school board split” “Realtors voted out of office” “I am for development, but taxpayers not bank” “I disagree with tax program”
6. Dave Greff – Resident, “definitely against breaks” “Concerned traffic”
7. Donald Richards – Resident, “100% in favor of project 110% against creating TIF district” “Financing concerns” Equity vs. private debt ratio’s changing”
8. John Donches – NON RESIDENT EMMAUS, “Stiffthetif” “ok with land development” “no ok using tax money” “Contingency fund”
9. Richard Perry – Resident, “Traffic” “No objections to growth” “against TIF” “Traffic beyond project. Feeder Rds”
10. Charles Patrel – Resident, “Shepherd Hills” “Project going to go through either way” “Traffic impact instead of granting TIF use money to address traffic” “remember the citizens”
11. Mike Catcher – Resident, Roads “Beitler hit nail hit” “feeder roads” “Used to live in whitehall and that’s what he sees” “how pay for future impacts”
12. Mike Scalanti – Resident, Organized Labor – For the project “but not at the reduced rate”.

Other project related issue. No TIF opinion (5)
1. Tom Hess – Resident, “500 yds from N. Krocks” “sees Boulevard pictures, but fears Mcarther Rd.” No mention of TIF
2. Mike Siegal – Resident, “Increased grants” “money coming in is fluid””New grants yet we cannot get second opinion on traffic impact fees” “Concerned with how money being spent”
3. Joe ? – Resident, Engineer – “history of bypass” Nuetral on TIF “signal concerns”
4. Peter Ryan – Resident, “no evidence the bypass can handle the traffic associated with development”. “let everyone else argue about TIF or no TIF”
5. Mike Frazier – Resident, “Talking about Traffic”

CEMETERY (1)
1. Ken Guldin – Resident – “People dying to have a place in cemetary”

CLEAR FOR TIF (7)
1. Scott Forbes – Resident “Urge board to accept TIF” “Tax revenue is worth the investment”
2. Mark Spengler – Resident “for the TIF”
3. Kevin Lewis – Resident Organized Labor “Jobs””For TIF” “For Project”
4. William Mcghee – NON RESIDENT Organized Labor – Jobs
5. Eichenberg – Resident former Commissioner Economic Development
6. John Iobst – Resident Organized Labor “For the construction jobs”
7. Sharon ??? – Resident “Keep money local” “It’s an eyesore why not beautify the area.

For Project (1)
1. Jim Reilly – President LV Building Trades – Organized Labor  No Address”Not here to talk about TIF” “Jobs”

FENCE (1)
1. Jane Bachman – Resident – “not as bad” “wants to see ice skating rink” Comment related to something else on property..

Special Interest (2)
1. Jeremy Hugg – Lawyer Cedar Realty
2. Lucious LCIDA

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