Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan is proposing a real estate tax increase of 8.5 percent and a radical change in the city’s garbage collection system in his 2013 budget plan, which he officially unveiled during a news conference in City Hall Friday.
Heading into his final year in office, the mayor plans to take on a difficult political fight and hire a single hauler to cart city garbage – eliminating Bethlehem’s longstanding system of requiring property owners to hire their own hauler from a list of city-approved garbage collection companies.
Callahan argued that a single hauler system would save the average city household $110 a year while providing the city with a new source of revenue that is not property tax.
The proposal is likely to draw fire from the 20 or so contractors -- many of them small mom-and-pop operations -- that make their living in the city and a number of residents who believe they are saving money or getting better service by hiring their own hauler.
“People hold that near and dear,” said Council President Eric Evans, who predicted that City Council is likely to spend significant time discussing that issue – and several others – during budget hearings, which he hopes will begin on Nov. 19.
Callahan said that the results of the most recent Bethlehem Citizen Satisfaction Survey showed that 58 percent of city residents would actually be supportive of a single-hauler system. The mayor said he plans to discuss the survey in greater detail next week.
The proposed property tax increase will mean $60 more a year for the average city homeowner in a house with an assessed value of $50,000, city officials said.
Roughly 60 percent of the increase will be a new tax dedicated exclusively to the operation of the city’s 911 emergency dispatch center. The rest is a general fund increase.
Emergency dispatching is also likely to occupy a lot of City Council time before the year ends.
In recent years, the 911 Center has been a drag on the city’s general fund. Dedicated state taxes on telephones and cell phones have failed to provide sufficient funding and dispatching is a county function throughout most of Pennsylvania, with Bethlehem and Allentown being the only exceptions.
However, Callahan and the Bethlehem Police Department have made compelling arguments for keeping the dispatching city-based. Dispatchers have become proficient at using city street cameras to help police catch suspects within minutes of a crime being reported.
Part of Friday’s budget presentation was video and audio of police and dispatchers working together to nab a suspect within a minute of an armed robbery at the Pantry 1 in South Bethlehem.
At the same time, the city is looking at making more than $1.1 million in capital improvements to the dispatching center this year to keep it viable.
Other details from the mayor’s budget proposal:
- Callahan is also calling for the implementation of a 5 percent amusement tax, which he is also calling a “first responders fee,” on all ticketed events in the city, including those at SteelStacks, the Sands Bethlehem Event Center and Musikfest. He estimates that will raise $600,000 in new revenue, which will be dedicated to the police and fire departments.
- The city has begun approaching some of its largest tax-exempt organizations – including Lehigh University, Moravian College and Lehigh Valley Hospital – Muhlenberg – to provide a voluntary contribution in lieu of taxes. Callahan said 19 percent of the city’s land is occupied by tax-exempt organizations, citing Lehigh’s 650 acres as one example. He is hoping to raise $1 million through this effort.
- Five more city jobs will be eliminated from this year’s budget – all through attrition. In all, the city has eliminated 69 jobs over the past three years, a 10 percent reduction in Bethlehem’s workforce.
- Callahan plans to sell five parking lots currently owned by the city but operated by the Bethlehem Parking Authority to the authority for $1.2 million.
- The biggest cost driver that is forcing the city to look at increasing its revenue is a $3.9 million increase in the payment it must make to the Pennsylvania Employment Retirees Fund. In 2012, the payment due was $7.2 million. In 2013, it will be $11.1 million.
Public sector union pensions will kill us and you know that they sure are far more lucrative than your measly pension in the private sector... All with no profit motive and built on your hard work and taxes. Don't you love them?
Also like idea of the colleges paying their fair share. Lehigh charges 50000 a year per student and can't give something to city....come on. Not happy about tax increase, but until Harrisburg does something about pension reform, I am afraid city is in a hard place.
Not one of the small companies in business at this time. What will happen to them? They might have to go out of business which would leave the owners and their employees with no source of income, while the big company that wins the bid will just make more money. Will this company have jobs for all the misplaced workers? And just how much would each homeowner have to pay for this? Most likely more than the $81.00 for 3 months service that I get with my trash hauler. That is with unlimited number of trash bags allowed. Also, the property tax plan is so outdated. All who work and live in the city should pay toward city hall, streets, police and school costs. Switching to a payroll based tax - or a local sales tax for the above mentioned costs would be fairer than the plan in place now
I can't imagine someone not wanting to save money.
I do believe that it is unfair for residential customers only to subsidize a $500,000 revenue source meant to subsidize the city's general fund budget. Marking an actual single hauler contract up for a single hauler just to make money is wrong. That is why I believe it should be assessed to all property owners. That amount, $500,000 is roughly the equivalent to one-third of a mill real estate tax. It would make more sense to have all property owners pay that than just residents.
These Pensions will be the death of all things, how in the world you can expect to pay people the rest of their days, you start adding all the people that go through the system and get added to the list to collect these pensions, and guess what at somepoint you are paying so much money to all these people that you can't continue to fund your normal opperational expenses, thus causing every citzen to have to pay higher taxes and the list goes on and on. I'm tired of the Gravy Train that everyone wants to ride, be financial responsible and fund your own life after work, that's what I'm doing, I realize that "I" need to pay for myself down the road, not someone else.
UNIONS HAVE CHANGED AND HOLD THE REST OF US HOSTAGE BY NEGOTIATED PENSIONS DONE BY THE CLUELESS INCOMPETENT POLITICIANS WHO HAVE NO REAL STAKE IN THE MATTER AS THE BLOWBACK WOULD ONLY OCCUR LONG AFTER THEY ARE LONG OUT OF OFFICE. HOWEVER, THE CAVING ASSUAGEMENT TO THE UNIONS IN TERMS OF HERE AND NOW GOODWILL WAS OF COURSE IMMEDIATE. A GOOD CLASSIC EXAMPLE IS THE WONDERFULLY INCOMPETENT TAXI CAB DRIVER, ALLENTOWN'S FINEST, ROY AFFLERBACH, WHICH IN GERMAN MUST DIRECTLY TRANSLATE TO "DUMB PHUCK". NOT MERELY DUMMKOPF...
How do you manage to turn this story into an attack on unions..I'm glad , however, that you used the word negotiate..If unions enjoy these pensions , it 's because the municipal leaders or leader gave them this in negotiations..Thank you. Also, the Republican backed Wall streeters also decimated municipal pensions, among others, when they almost bankrupted our economy..Lastly, many school districts and other municipalities, thinking their plans were hunky dorey, decided not to contribute to the plans as they should have been doing..So stop all the anti union crap. Because , it's just that..Crap..It has nothing to do with this issues..This shouldnt have been tied to the budget in the first place..