Before the election, the Board of Health was nearing the completion of their final report on the Bi-County Health Department, and they will soon present their findings to the two counties' elected officials. At issue is whether their proposal should be tabled until the economy recovers or banished forever, and whether this should happen in an unaccountable lame-duck session or after the election winners are seated. While I'm sure the incumbents would like to have the final say on this, it would be fairer to wait until after the election winners are seated. There's no practical reason that …

Is it time for a left-right alliance for property tax reform?It looks like there is growing support on the Tea Party right for replacing property taxes, and I contend that there are also many good reasons for liberals to be excited about the opportunity to jettison this uniquely heinous tax.Shifting the tax burden away from property and development toward consumption and land value would align incentives in ways that support core progressive goals.For example, untying the distribution of education funding from where people live would help struggling urban school districts and reduce …

Last week Governor Tom Corbett and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi raised Pennsylvania's profile in the 2012 Presidential race with a plan to change the way Pennsylvania awards its electoral votes. Mr. Pileggi would have Pennsylvania join two other states, Nebraska and Maine, in abandoning the winner-take-all system. One electoral vote would be awarded for each of the 18 Congressional districts, and the winner of the popular vote would receive 2 more. If this system had been in place in 2008, President Obama would have beaten John McCain by a narrow margin - 11-10 - rather than winning…

A recent article at PA Independent sheds some light on a telling split between business organizations and political conservatives on President Obama's American Jobs Act. The National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County, and Lockheed Martin all told Caleb Taylor that the AJA will help boost sales by putting people back to work. Notably, NFIB state director Kevin Shivers expressed disappointment that the plan may not go far enough to boost sagging demand: "Tax credits are great, but if you don't have customers coming in to buy stuff, few …

PBS-39 has come up with an interesting change to their business model that may hold some lessons for how we think about public funding for the arts. The new PBS station at Steel Stacks won't just create programming - it will also sell services to the public, and rent work space and equipment to businesses and filmmakers. Nicole Radzievich describes the changes in her recent piece on Pat Simon: The PBS39 Public Media and Education Center, the twin anchor with the ArtsQuest Center at Steel Stacks, includes two studios, six editing suites and satellite linkups on property that had been idle …

Back in June I asked how Charlie Dent would defend his vote to end Medicare, and it now appears that he simply won't. Despite his usual practice of holding town hall meetings during the August recess, Mr. Dent has so far declined to host a public gathering for constituents.   When he has appeared in public, it has been in front of friendly interest groups, or in situations where the Congressman is likely to be dominant, such as in conversations at the door with random residents. Given the Republican Party's ugly poll numbers, a streak of bad votes and Mr. Dent's own bad town hall experience …

From Charles Malinchak at the Morning Call, this may be the single largest waste of land resources I've ever encountered: Sands Casino Resorts will move ahead with constructing an employee parking lot along Route 412 after gaining approval for the project by the Bethlehem Planning Commission, which also disapproved plans for a 58-unit housing development off Applebutter Road. Both decisions came Thursday and for Sands, it will allow the casino to convert more than 10-acres currently used mostly for construction vehicles to an 811-space parking lot for employees. Sands wants to put a 10 acre …

Bruce E. Davis of the Route 22 Coalition brings us the latest bad idea from the 2000's that should have been put out of its misery when the housing bubble popped. Mr. Davis has long been an advocate for widening Route 22 to a 6-lane freeway between 15th Street and Airport Road, but Ed Rendell's "fix it first" policy for infrastructure mercifully ended that idea's prospects for a while. But now, Tom Corbett's Transportation Funding Advisory Commission appears to have put the issue back in play, and local sprawl boosters are giddy. In a Morning Call opinion piece, Mr. Davis wrote: Within the […

My column this week is focused on Bethlehem parking issues, but the approach I'm endorsing would be equally useful in Easton and Allentown. Dennis Lieb recently proposed a version of this policy as a way to fund the Neighborhood Improvement District now under discussion in Easton. Last week my blogger friend Jaime Karpovich started a discussion on her Facebook page that generated a lot of interest, regarding the lack of grocery stores in downtown Bethlehem. Here's her status update: The only thing Bethlehem is missing is a grocery store in walking distance that carries non-dairy milks, decent…

My colleague Margie Peterson recently wrote about the benefits of "smart growth" land use policies for cities like Easton and Bethlehem, whose dense downtowns are benefitting from renewed interest in city living. But if human-scale, walkable development is "smart," it's worth reflecting on what's not smart: the low-density sprawl, McMansions and Big Box shopping centers the region was building furiously in the outlying townships before the housing bubble burst. The reason this kind of development isn't smart is that it's simply not sustainable, economically, fiscally or environmentally. Over …

Liquor store privatization appears to be back on the agenda in Harrisburg this fall, so this is a good time to start thinking about what consumers should want to see in the final bill. While there's a lot of support for the general concept of alcohol reform, consumers need to pay close attention to the specific proposals because there's a conflict between what's best for revenues and special interests and what's best for the alcohol-buying public. To kick off the conversation, here's my wishlist: Supermarket Sales While other states sell alcohol in supermarkets, bars, restaurants, and …

I want to respond briefly to an unfortunate column from my colleague Bernie O'Hare, in which important factual errors prop up some seriously wrongheaded opinions about Bethlehem's new Human Relations Commission. My colleague is simply incorrect that the HRC duplicates federal and state protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 includes protections for gender identity but it does not apply to sexual orientation. The same goes for the Title IX protection against discrimination in education. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act also does not …

Since I last wrote in favor of regional policing, there has been some encouraging movement on the issue, along with some predictable setbacks. Last week, Nazareth Borough Council voted unanimously to negotiate a contract with the Colonial Regional Police Department, which covers Hanover Township, Lower Nazareth Township, Bath Borough and Chapman Borough.  While it's not a done deal, and many thorny issues have yet to be resolved, the vote was a brave step forward for Nazareth. This is the kind of creative leadership and (literally!) outside-the-box thinking that we need to see more of from …

On my blog, I've been posting excerpts from A History of Italian Immigration to the Easton Area by Richard D. Grifo and Anthony Noto. It was published in 1964 by the Northampton County Historical and Geneological Society, and you can buy a copy at the Sigal Museum.  The most fascinating thing about this history is thinking about Italians as an ethnic Other, since they're now widely considered to be "white." This was not always the case. Italians arrived later than other ethnic groups, mostly between 1900 and 1930: In 1890 there were only 341 [Italians]; in 1900, 1582; in 1910, 3723; in 1920, …

I've been wondering how Congressman Charlie Dent was planning to defend his vote to end Medicare in his reelection campaign next year, so it was interesting to see this quote Mr. Dent gave to Bloomberg News: Republicans are already preparing their strategy on Medicare, said Rooney, who was among 20 lawmakers who met with Ryan and other Republican leaders the day of Hochul’s election victory to hone their arguments.  The party can prevail “by playing offense and stating the choice: doing something or doing nothing, which means bankruptcy and cuts in current benefits for current beneficiaries…

The debate over what the government can do to help the economy is a pretty polarizing topic in American politics these days, but there's one role for government that a supermajority of Americans agree on: promoting economic mobility. A recent poll by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 83% of respondents supported a government role in promoting economic mobility, and 58% believed the government could be doing more to help Americans improve their prospects. While there were predictable divisions over the appropriate methods, 91% of Democrats and 73% of Republicans said they supported active …

Over the weekend, Nick Falsone at the Express Times reported that Northampton County failed the American Lung Association's air quality tests for ozone and short-term particle pollution. You may recall hearing about this problem in the State of the Lehigh Valley report that was released earlier this year. While you might think to blame coal-fired plants like GenOn's Portland Generating Station, one of the top 5 worst polluters in the country, the ALA actually singled out auto emissions as the primary culprit. Here is how Kevin Stewart of the ALA described the risks to Mr. Falcone: "When you …

One thing I find really unjust about school budget politics is that students don't get to vote for school board candidates. Parents aren't always perfect stewards of students' interests, and oftentimes adults and kids may have opposing interests. Too often political decisions about education are made on the basis of tax aversion, not what's required for a quality education. If students aren't allowed to vote, the next best thing would be to have a recent graduate's voice on the school board. To hear how a 2008 Liberty grad would improve the schools, I talked to Basilio Bonilla, a 20-year-old …

Down in the polls, Governor Tom Corbett recently complained that he shouldn't be blamed for his proposed education cuts, and he actually has a point, if not the one he intended to make. The reason that state budgets across the nation are out of balance is the recession. Pennsylvania is not special in this respect. While pension issues present a problem in the medium-to-long term, the 2011 state budget deficit is the result of a huge drop off in revenues. We're still kissing 8% unemployment, fewer people are working and paying taxes, so tax collections have been depressed. Since tax receipts …

Citizens of Bethlehem are getting ripped off. The city's market for waste management is hopelessly broken, with residents paying higher prices for worse service and less accountability than their neighbors enjoy in the Lehigh Valley's other cities.  Last October, the firm Waste Management talked to Matt Assad of The Morning Call about their different price plans for Bethlehem and Allentown. Allentown residents pay $28 a month for unlimited trash removal twice a week. This includes free recycling, free yard waste removal, and free removal of large appliances. Bethlehem residents pay $26.50 a …