I prefer campaigning by focusing on what I need to do to get our message out by running on my own record as opposed to worrying about what others are doing. This blog is a 4 year record of ideas, conversation, positions and accomplishments.

However, I will briefly comment on someone else potentially getting into the race because I’ve been asked what it means since it’s been reported by the paper. The Morning Call this week posted that incumbent Ryan Mackenzie is apparently “hedging his election bet” (their words) and circulating petitions for both the 134th and the #PA15 Congressional seat.

I understand what he’s doing, but find it unfortunate someone sees representing us in Harrisburg as a backup plan if their more ambitious one doesn’t work out. No matter what he decides to do, it doesn’t change things for me. I am in this race to win and represent my hometown. To solve the problems that career politicians for whatever reasons have not been able or are unwilling to do.

5 essential State Government reforms. 

I believe in term limits and I love being a small business owner, so I have no desire to become a career politician. (I will reject any state pension, lavish perks and per diems) I want the chance to serve and take my record of results to Harrisburg to improve our district and the state. Together in Lower Macungie we enacted residential property tax relief that lowered residential tax bills, we preserved farmland and open space, we reduced yearly spending, we proactively planned for our future and we made our local government the most transparent in the region. I delivered here and I know can do the same in Harrisburg.

About Ron
Ron in the news
What others are saying

IMPORTANT TAX BILL INFO:

Lower Macungie Homeowners – Are you enrolled in Homestead? It’s a program the board enacted to further reduce your property taxes. The chart below shows your savings. The green column is the amount of your bill after homestead savings.
(*Note, school property tax bills are separate and set by the School Board)

Morning Call: Lower Mac Commissioners give homeowners tax break

Recently, Homestead and Farmstead exclusion applications have been mailed out to eligible households by Lehigh County who are NOT already enrolled.

Once again, the township has set the homestead rate to the maximum allowed by the state. Eligible homeowners deduct the median home value from the assessment used to calculate their property tax bill.

This year that increased to 121,200 since home values increased in the township. This means 1,329 Lower Mac homes assessed under that amount are eligible for full relief. All others get a reduced bill. The chart below shows your savings. Lower Mac has the lowest Township property tax of any suburban Lehigh County community.

Properties eligible for exclusion include primary owner occupied homes. To receive the discount you must be enrolled. Applications are due March 1st. You can check your enrollment status by calling the County at 610.782.3038.

Information on if your home qualifies here.

Chart above shows your homestead savings. The Green column is your bill after homestead.

Interested in the 2018 township budget? Click here: 
The adopted 2018 budget – A snapshot. 

Commonwealth Court finds no ‘judicially manageable’ standards in Pennsylvania redistricting case.

Couple things here:

First, I support the initiatives of Fair Districts PA to address our severe gerrymandering problem. They propose appointing an impartial and independent citizens commission to direct redistricting — as opposed to what happens today, which is career politicians drawing their own district lines. I’ve written about the issue numerous times on this blog.

As a Commissioner, Lower Macungie unanimously adopted a resolution urging elected state officials to support independent commission legislation.

That being said – I don’t believe the solution to this is a judicial one. Maps should not be fixed by activist Judge’s.

I voted in favor of the 2018 budget this year. The 31.7 million dollar budget accomplished a number of important items on behalf of our 32,000 residents. First, it reduces general fund spending year over year, maintains the lowest suburban millage rate in the entire Lehigh Valley and continues the use of homestead and farmstead to reduce residential property tax bills including complete elimination of the township bill for 1,329 residents. While being a taxpayer friendly budget it also maintains the high level of municipal services that our residents expect and ensures continued capital investments in our community according to our adopted 5 year capital plan.

General Fund spending reduced:
2017 approved General Fund Spending: 14,702,900
2018 approved General Fund Spending: 13,682,385
This represents a 7% decrease in planned general fund (recurring) spending.

On the capital side of things major investments include:
-A new traffic light at Minesite and Cedar Crest tentatively planned for 2018.
-A new aerial truck and other apparatus’s for the Fire Dept.
-Incremental park improvements
-Purchase of more snow plow capable pickup trucks and 1 additional small dump.
-1.6 million set aside for farmland and open space preservation

Homestead Property Tax Relief.
The first column is your assessment, the second is what your tax bill would be without Homestead (the lowest Suburban millage in the County), the 3rd green column is what your bill is with homestead and finally the amount you save this year.

*2018 (for 2017 tax year) Homestead applications have been mailed out to homeowners by Lehigh County. Make sure you are enrolled! Call Lehigh County assessment office at 610.782.3038 if you aren’t sure. 

Last year I voted “NO” on the 2017 budget. I explained that vote here. This year, I voted “YES” despite dissatisfaction with the scale of the community center expansion. My vote was primarily on the merit of reducing the planned overall general fund (recurring) spend year to year. This was a goal. I was not going to vote on any budget that increased general fund spending. We did one better, we actually reduced this year.

With the Community center project – I opposed at multiple points growing costs, including most recently voting against the addition of a $95k reception area front desk “add on” which was proposed very late in the game and added to project scope and costs. We were able to secure a stand alone vote on that item, but unfortunately we failed to remove it 3-2. While failing at removing that item, we were however able to remove by a 3-2 vote another 70k last minute addition of a sound proof ceiling in the 2nd gym. These last minute add ons represented luxuries not necessities. And if needed, things that should have been addressed in the initial design phase. Not cobbled together at the last minute and at great (in the case of the desk shockingly so) cost.

Also, I was again disappointed that the budget included another 15% sewer rate increase. But please note and understand, this is an unfunded mandate dictated by the EPA. I’ve talked about this at length here on this blog. Learn more about the EPA mandate here. The township must (and in fairness should) address the sewer infiltration issues or face significant fines from the EPA. While this year represented a right sizing of the quarterly bill relative to the mandate, I will not support any additional increases next year.

For 2018 I also have the following goals for the budget:

1.) It’s my intention to introduce a homestead rate that completely eliminates the township property tax for homestead qualifying residents. This was setup by the successful passage of the November homestead referendum. I’ve written about this many times on this blog over the last couple years why and how we accomplish this.

2.) I would like to propose a policy that future spending increases cannot surpass the rate of inflation without a referendum. This would be a companion to the fund balance policy we adopted a few years ago. It represents financial restraint as a matter of policy and would send major discretionary spending decisions directly to voters. 

Vote YES on Nov. 7th property tax referendum.

On November 7th, Pennsylvanians will have the opportunity to vote on a referendum to reform property taxes through the state’s homestead exclusion program.

This would enable municipalities to exclude up to 100% percent of the assessed value of a home from taxation. Essentially, property tax bills could be reduced to zero. Currently, the homestead exclusion is arbitrarily limited to 50% of median assessed property value.

Lower Macungie now utilizes that maximum 50% homestead exclusion. This allows us to keep our low millage in place to collect revenue from impactful commercial land uses like warehouses and shopping centers while at the same time we can provide much needed tax relief to homeowners.

If the referendum and corresponding legislation is passed, Lower Macungie will be able to eliminate the entire residential property tax for every qualifying residential household.

Today, 1100 of our lowest income households pay no property tax because of our use of Homestead. A good start but it’s my hope we can eliminate the property tax for all households. A yes, vote would give us the local control to do just that.

Note, the referendum has bi-partisan support across the aisle. This is a no-brainer. Please vote yes on Nov. 7th.

Ron Beitler – Vice President Lower Macungie Twp. Board of Commissioners

It’s time for a constitutional convention. And thanks to Sen. John Eichelberger and Rep. Steve Bloom that ball is in play. This editorial by Pennlive from the summer nails the reason. Read the op-ed here. In the op-ed the authors also touch upon a number of suggestions. Most (but not all) I agree with. This conversation has been ongoing but it seems like momentum is gathering. This is likely because frustration with state government is at an all time high.

Below are some of the good government structural reforms that I support. All of which could be addressed by a limited constitutional convention. I’ve written about a number of these at length on this blog over the last few years. A state constitutional convention is the mechanism to address all of these and other concerns at one time in a very transparent but also highly efficient way. Constitutional conventions give voters who are frustrated with broken state government the chance to take a very direct role in reform efforts such as:

• Term Limits
• Address the size of the legislature. For ex. reducing the size (and cost) of Government begins with eliminating the pointless office of the Lt. Gov.
• Campaign finance reform
• Gerrymandering reform
• Reforming the completely broken and totally backwards state budget process.

These efforts would go a long way to draining the swamp at the state level. And a limited constitutional convention is the way you address them all at once. 

Here are some more resources:
Lawmakers file memos to initiate a Pennsylvania constitutional convention.
Eichelberger and Bloom news conference.