Category Archives: Uncategorized

President George H. W. Bush

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President George H. W. Bush. 
Lower Macungie Township flags will be flown at half staff in honor of his life.

The last veteran of World War II to serve as president. He enlisted on his 18th birthday and later was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery. A businessman, congressman, ambassador and family man who loved deeply his wife of 73 years. One of the most qualified candidates to ever assume the office of President. Most important George H.W. Bush was the epitome of steadiness and calm during a time of great uncertainty.

Much will be said about the role he played in the peaceful ending of the cold war over the next few days. But what’s remarkable in hind site and also critically important was his refusal to gloat after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This was representative how he personified a dignified strength which was for most of our history a hallmark of our nations moral leadership.

On this day, put whether politically you agreed with his policies, both foreign and domestic aside. What cannot be argued is the quality of the man’s character. Who he was. His values, ethics. The way he treated other people. His leadership. Self sacrifice.

George H.W. Bush skydived on his 85th and 90th birthdays. He lived an extraordinary life. We will honor this at the Lower Macungie Twp. building by flying flags half staff.

 

 

New government commission on gerrymandering

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A Government commission… words that rarely instill much confidence.
 
Gerrymandering remains a structural problem. Pa is among the worse offenders. That’s almost universally acknowledged. The question is, do partisans accept it as an end to justify means when their party is in power OR do they acknowledge something as being fundamentally wrong even when it benefits them. Our state legislature has failed time and time again to take any action to address this. 
 
The latest on stalled reform is that the Governor has convened a commission “that will review non-partisan redistricting processes in other states that reduce gerrymandering, provide opportunities for public comment at community meetings and online, and make recommendations to the governor and legislature for a non-partisan redistrict process in Pennsylvania.”
 
So at first glance, I’m thinking Ok, here comes some more lip service. More studying. More exploring. I really feel with this issue the more complicated we make it the further we get from a truly fair solution. The goal is create clear and measurable standards (based on the impartial objectives outlined in the constitution) by which citizens may hold those drawing the maps accountable. This is not rocket science. Equal vote, equal voice.
 
I’ll say I’m happy to see local Amanda Holt as one of 15 people appointed to the commission. Amanda is a Lehigh County Commissioner and an expert on this topic. She single-handedly challenged ridiculous maps through the courts. As a concerned citizen Amanda drew measurably better (from 55 to 23 municipal splits) maps than the legislature produced.  She maintains a website with a ton of information.

Are you enrolled in township tax reduction program?

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Residents: Make sure you are enrolled in the township property tax reduction program!

As a reminder, in 2014 the Board of Commissioners adopted a Homestead Property Tax Exclusion Ordinance. As a result, the homestead program benefits Lower Macungie homeowners by offering a reduction or in some cases complete elimination of the township property tax. For example, for homes at the median assessed value, the program reduces the property tax bill by half.

Here is a post where I overview the savings. 

Township homeowners are eligible if their home is not used for commercial purposes and if it is their primary residence. Here is the application. Not sure if your already enrolled? Call the Lehigh County assessment office at: 610-782-3038

*This post is about township property taxes, not school or county which are separate issues.

The majority of the board sought to reduce residential property taxes even further this year by increasing the Homestead reduction, unfortunately an anticipated state law change did not occur yet. Learn more here.

Patriotism vs. Nationalism.

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Patriotism and Nationalism are NOT the same thing. For the purpose of clarity I want to keep this post as short and simple as possible. 

 

Patriotism: “A love for and devotion to one’s country.” A quality of showing vigorous support for one’s country.
 
I am a proud American Patriot. To be a Patriot is to have a loyalty to principle. Shared values. (Life, liberty….)Shared history and lessons learned. Resulting in a sense of responsibility. 
 
Nationalism: Similar but also includes the aspect of  “exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups.”
(Both definitions in part from Merriams Dictionary)
 

I do not identify as a nationalist. To be a nationalist is to have a loyalty to identification above all else. The highest form of identity politics. An uncritical reverence to the nation state. Resulting in arrogance.

First and foremost, I don’t believe that my Christian faith is compatible with nationalism because we’re taught by Jesus about God’s love for the marginalized. That’s simply not compatible with fervent nationalism. The words are similar in some ways and often erroneously conflated, but clearly nationalism is way too loaded with negative aspects. History shows us that it’s a power dynamic.

 

Election Day.

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5 important state and federal races tomorrow. Not a fan of hyperbole. So no, “this is the most important election of our lifetime!!” rhetoric here. Now, I’m not discounting the election. Certainly not. I just believe every election and every vote is important as every cycle represents an opportunity to change things for the better. 
 
One thing I won’t do is hit a button for “straight ticket”. Even if you select all candidates from one party, take the time to choose each race individually. If only symbolic. These decisions are too important to choose candidates based on party alone.
 
I’m working a poll in Lower Mac the entire day in support of 2 candidates and 2 only. Marty Nothstein and Pat Browne. I’ll be voting in all races but working for these candidates because they put local interests above national partisan politics.

Marty.
Marty’s accomplished some of the same things we accomplished in Lower Mac. He found creative ways to reduce the property tax burden for homeowners, while restoring funding to the farmland preservation program. Also moved forward the critically important renovation of Cederbrook, the County nursing home. The public home is the last line of defense for our most vulnerable seniors.  
 
Pat.
Pat’s again running a local campaign for state office. A good thing. His opponent, a campaign almost entirely focused on national talking points and wedge issues. The saying used to be ‘all politics is local’. Somehow over time we’ve abandoned that. I blame my own party in part. It was 1994 when Newt Gingrich effectively nationalized 435 formally locally-based congressional seats. Everything became about national talking points about wedges. Pat generally doesn’t play that game.

Was disappointed his campaign was so careless to hit send on a negative mailer that turned out to be false. I despise negative campaigning. Even if I get why people do it, (Spoiler alert, it works. Learned that the hard way) but there is a difference between negative and false. If your gonna do it, make damn sure your right.

In the future to be honest, I’d support a primary challenge from a qualified candidate. These positions should not be lifetime careers and Pat has served for a very long time. I hold a core belief in term limits. For this year though, the Democrats nominated someone who has not shown voters anything of substance relative to the unique issues of the Lehigh Valley, (traffic, infrastructure, growth) Lower Mac (preservation, unfunded mandates etc) or our Commonwealth. (skyrocketing property taxes)

So, I’m voting and publicly supporting a candidate who has and will continue to be positioned to deliver for the greater Lehigh Valley. Pat Browne has and will continue to.

 

As for other races, I have no strong comments. Only that I hope folks have done their homework and that end of the day vote for people, not parties.

Read an article today, The Sad Death of “All Politics is Local” that inspired parts of this. Timely find because I was thinking about the same thing.

I do hope someday voters re-focus on the unique culture, needs and issues of their local community and take a hard look at which candidates (regardless of party) will serve those needs. I’ll leave you with this.

America, owing to its Founders’ vision, started out with a local and regional first-past-the-post system that makes (what the Founders thought would be) only occasional allowance (war powers, foreign trade and treaties, and eventually judicial review) for strong federal action. Unfortunately, as it stands today, we currently have the worst of both worlds. It would be wonderful to see an off-year election where local concerns and voices were truly “centered” in the discussion, a midterm that truly put 500 or 600 local spotlights on the individual and unique needs and cultures of individual communities and people, and truly reflected our diversity. Not a hyped-up online and cable smackdown referendum on the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Enough of the virtue-signaling, prattling, and pandering about things of which, at the end of the day, local candidates have no control.

Your tax dollars and the 2019 township budget

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Last night (Monday night) was the 2nd budget workshop. The 2019 document proposes once again no tax increase (We have the lowest taxes of any suburban community in the Valley). It includes more money for preservation initiatives and continues to address our infrastructure.

You can view the 2019 proposed budget here. 

Two convo’s generated interesting discussion:

First, in reviewing the Sewer Budget we discussed at length the I&I (underground infrastructure repair) item. A complicated matter since it’s required by a federal mandate enacted a few years ago. A bit frustrating since Lower Mac has been ahead with our repairs to our system. Last year when faced with the unfunded mandate pushing us beyond a regular schedule of repairs we slightly raised the sewer rate. Now, since the mandate has changed (been a moving target) we discussed reducing the rate to correspond. Note that our sewer rate is already among the lowest. However, I believe that fees for specific services like sewers should correspond directly to expenditures. We raised it for a purpose and if the plan has changed we should adjust. Digging deeper before the next BOC meeting.

Next, we have a well thought out 5-year capital plan for parks. Last night, however, we removed an item to spend 60k on a park pavilion at the new Camp Olympic playground. The problem was the cost. Really it’s a large gazebo. No doubt very nice, but the price tag was shocking. The cost for local government to do relatively simple projects never ceases to amaze me. I could not see supporting it at the price presented. I’ve let the Parks Director know I’d consider supporting the project next year if the price is significantly reduced. This has to do with the state’s inability to address an antiquated prevailing wage law that hasn’t been updated in 40 years driving up the cost of park projects for local municipalities. Excessive outside agency permitting also. In the private sector, I’m confident the price for the same gazebo would be half or even less.

New wireless antennas coming to your neighborhood?

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Wireless antenna coming to your neighborhood? Lower Mac and other local governments may not be able to help you avoid it IF a new state law is passed.

5G antennas sit on top of existing structures.

 

Here is the background:

Earlier this year, Lower Mac began work on a sensible ordinance meant to work with wireless carriers on common sense placement of new 5G antennas.

The fear is that 5G equipment will sprout up on top of existing telephone poles, traffic signals and other structures proliferating like weeds over the next decade. We know from conversations with residents about a proposed cell antenna in Kratzer Farm Park (the Board of Commissioners eventually declined to rent land to the carrier) that our residents are very concerned about the placement of these facilities locally. Nearly 100 residents from Rolling Meadows attended the meeting. The flip side of this of course is we all want faster and more reliable cell service. We believe a proposed ordinance our staff has been working on addresses the desired balance by allowing new devices but only in places that make sense like for example industrial and commercial areas away from residents. If a new state law passes, however, our ordinance won’t matter. 
 

A few months ago however it came to our attention that the State Legislature – under heavy pressure from telecom lobbyists, drafted legislation to take away local control and allow for antennas to be put basically into any existing utility easement including near homes in neighborhoods. So, it would render any local ordinances we draft to try to get a grip on these facilities to protect neighborhoods moot.

 

No telephone poles in your neighborhood? The State Law would allow antennas placed on top on decorative lights. It also would allow construction of new poles where they don’t exist.

 Here are details of how the legislation would change current law:

  1. It would strip municipalities of their zoning authority over all wireless facilities, including new poles and antennas, in the rights-of-way. (Section 3j). While prescribing a maximum permitted height of 50 feet for poles, it also gives wireless companies the “right” to exceed this height limit via a “height limit waiver request.” (Section 3e) Municipalities would be forced to approve any pole of any height at any location regardless of its appropriateness.
  2. It would drastically cut fees that municipalities are permitted to assess for use of the rights-of-way. Specifically, the bill limits fees as follows: 1) application fee = $100; 2) fee for new poles = $25 per year; 3) fees for new antennas = $25 per year; and 4) fee for new antennas on municipally-owned poles = $50 per year. (Sections 3c, 4n, and 5d) These minimal fees would not allow municipalities to recover their costs of processing applications and managing wireless facilities, so local taxpayers would be forced to subsidize the wireless industry.
  3. It would significantly shorten the FCC’s mandatory approval timeframes. For example, the FCC allows 30 days for initial review of an application for completeness. HB 2564 would cut this period to 15 days. The FCC also allows 150 days for action on a new pole, after which it would be deemed approved. HB 2564 would shorten this period to 60 days. (Sections 4d and 4e) The bill also allows wireless companies to submit up to 20 permit requests in a single application with no increase in the time for municipalities to review them. (Section 4g)
Telecom companies want to expand 5G as fast as they can which is good but of course, they want to as cheaply as possible. The proposed state legislation is a billion dollar gift to providers. Proponents argue lower costs for providers will translate to lower bills. But don’t hold your breath.  The counter-argument is that antennas in residential areas will hurt property values. And of course, some folks bring up health issues as well. The jury is still out on that. When a very large antenna (the standard kind) was proposed on the Kratzer Farm Rolling Meadows residents had strong opinions about the health concerns and were understandably cautious. 
 
And lastly, because homeowners and property owners pay taxes on rights of way that they own, in essence, they would be forced to subsidize telecom companies. The proposed state legislation also caps fees.
 

Advocacy groups representing local governments oppose the legislation.

Richard J. Schuettler, executive director of the Pennsylvania Municipal League said, “It’s one-sided for the industry,” “People want to use 5G and we want it to happen. But there needs to be a recognition of local government and its historic inherent right to manage rights of way.”

 
So, what do you think?
 
Should this be something addressed locally on a case to case basis where communities can consider local concerns? Or should this be something regulated at the state or even federal level?

Harrisburg fails to act on property tax. Stymies local efforts.

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Last November I wrote a letter to the editor in the Morning Call encouraging folks to vote “YES” on a statewide referendum to reform property taxes through the state’s homestead exclusion program. That vote passed by a large margin, clearly demonstrating Pennsylvanians desire for reducing the property tax burden. Our state has among the highest in the Nation.

Problem is the vote alone which amended the state constitution does nothing in and of itself.  The State Legislature also needed to pass enabling legislation to allow local governments to further reduce property taxes on primary residences. To date, they have failed to do that.

The majority on our Lower Mac board of Commissioners stood ready to further reduce residential property taxes had the State legislature respected the wishes of Pennsylvanians and acted on enabling legislation. We assumed this would happen. It didn’t.
Note: We already utilize homestead to the maximum percentage currently allowed. Because of this, 1,100 of our lowest income households pay no property tax.

Our township budget and finance committee which I serve on has been discussing a strategy to further reduce residential property taxes for the last few months. We stood ready to take action in hopes that the legislature did their job. They didn’t and that’s incredibly disappointing since they had a clear mandate to do so directly from voters.

As I stated in the LTE last year, “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.” That was our intent and we were ready to act.

We just needed Harrisburg politicians to get out of our way. Sadly, they can’t even get out of their own way.

Commissioner Agenda 9/20

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The Lower Mac Board of Commissioners meet the first and 3rd Thursday of each month at 7pm in the township building.

Here is a link to the agenda with detail.

During announcements and presentations, we start things off with an update tonight from the Library Board. We will also have a construction update.  I had a chance to briefly tour the facility the other day. Both the new gym and the library expansion have taken form. The project is on budget and on time.

Hearings and Approvals.
Sewer Planning Module
We have one sewer planning module approval for the new Body Elite gym coming to Hamilton Blvd. What’s a sewer planning module you ask? The Pennsylvania Sewage Facilities Act (Act 537) requires Municipalities to develop and implement official plans in order to address sewage disposal with the intention of correcting existing problems and preventing future problems. Each time a new development is proposed the Municipality is required by state law to revise this official plan through a process referred to as a “Sewage Facilities Planning Module”.

Lot line adjustment
We have a minor lot line adjustment for a residential property on Fish Hatchery Rd.

Final Plan Approval for Stone Hill Meadows.
This item is final approval for phase 2 of this conservation cluster design development. Phase 1 is currently being built on Gehman Rd. The project is resulting in 70% of the entire parcel being permanently preserved including a large area to be reforested. The mantra I always speak to that reflects the mindset of our board is that as a township our goal is to preserve what we can, where we can – and where we can’t demand highest quality. In this case, preservation wasn’t an option so we worked with the developer to allow residential development but at the same time preserve a substantial chunk of the property via permanent preservation easements. In addition to the large reforested section, the public open space will be managed natural areas and public walking paths. Another big win with this development was that none of the new roads will be township liabilities. They will be maintained privately. This project has been in the pipeline for over 3 years and this is the final approval for the final phase. This is an example of when we can’t preserve, we work towards having projects we can be proud of.

Non-agenda items
Speaking of the above mantra of preserve where and when we can….I wanted to note:

Farmland preservation update
On September 28th, we finalize the acquisition of 185 acres of farmland located at Brookside Rd. and Sauerkraut Ln. Next, we’ll apply the property for permanent protection through the County. Once complete, the land can never be developed. 300 homes could have been built, but after the 28th it will remain farmland forever. A full build-out had we not preserved would have significantly strained the School district, caused severe traffic issues and hurt efforts to keep taxes low.

I want to thank the County Farmland Preservation Board and the Wildlands Conservancy for their help with this important preservation win.

 

2019 Lower Mac Budget Adoption Schedule

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What goes into adopting the yearly township budget? Here is an outline.

The formal process (although preparations are year-round) began in August. As you can see each year the proposed budget is put on the Twp. website for public review and comment well before we vote on final adoption. We also hold numerous public hearings in October giving residents the chance to offer feedback on multiple occasions. All public hearings will be recorded and placed online for residents to review at your convenience.

Here is the schedule:

Lower Macungie Township Schedule for 2019 Budget Preparation

August 3, 2018 – Letter to Professional Service Providers went out Requesting Rates. Emails were sent to Community Organizations and Committees soliciting budget requests. This includes the Library and Fire Dept.

August 20th, 2018 – Distributed Budget Packets to Township Departments – Public Works (Includes Parks, Facilities, Roads and Sewers), Community Center, Planning (includes Zoning, Code Enforcement and Permits), Finance & Accounting.

September 7th, 2018 – Obtained Department Budgets with explanations

September 10th, 2018 – Obtained Budget Requests from Community Organizations & Committees. (Includes the Fire Dept., and Library) Obtained 2019 rates from professional services. (Includes solicitor and Engineer)

September 14th, 2018 – Began First Budget Draft (Internal Review)

September 28th, 2018 – Draft Budget will be Submitted to the Board of Commissioners for Review. This is Commissioners first chance to review the entire draft document.

October 15th, 2018 – Board of Commissioners’ Public Workshop #1 @ 7 p.m. Opportunity for Public Comment

October 22, 2018 – Board of Commissioners’ Public Workshop #2 @ 7 p.m. Opportunity for Public Comment

October 29, 2018 – Board of Commissioners’ Public Workshop #3 @ 7 p.m. Opportunity for Public Comment

September 5th – Finalize Budget (internal review)

September 9th – Budget Distributed to BOC (internal deadline)

September 15th – First Public Reading of Budget, Public Advertising for Inspection and Ordinance

Nov. 16 – Dec. 20, 2018 – Public Inspection

December 20, 2018 – First opportunity for adoption of 2019 Budget BOC Meeting 7 p.m.