Allentown Property Taxes Rise 27 Percent

WFMZ
Allentown residents see 27 percent property tax increase "For the first time in 13 years, Allentown residents will see a property tax increase."

This works out to an average of 2.07 percent per year. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand that's not too terribly unreasonable. On the other, 27 percent in one giant leap comes as quite a surprise. What went mostly unrecognized Allentown's revenue nearly doubled over the last 13 years. These revenues mostly came from many other sources most taxpayers were unaware of. The problem here is this particular increase comes solely from property owners making this increase a lot more apparent. Thus becoming quite a hot button issue.

For most taxpayers this should amount to $25 a month or less. When I look back over my cable, car payment, insurance bills and others over the last 13 years they each went up a hellva' lot more. Rentals most certainly did. I bet so did most people's salaries.

Look, I'm not trying to justify whether this increase was needed or not. What I'm trying to point out is when you put this in perspective it isn't as bad as it sounds. Although it sure would be nice if candidates running for office would have been honest enough to prepare us for this so we could plan accordingly.

Once again I reinstate-- Rather then bitching them out, if anyone has any good ideas I'm sure council and the mayor are both more then willing to entertain them.

Saturday Night Live Is Tanking

Stick a fork in it...
Out of the three major networks 'Saturday Night Live' comes in dead last most weeks. There's a good reason for that-- they aren't funny. Not unless you find humor in making a dick out of other people. The other day I posted about the bygone era when comedians mostly made fun of themselves or some situation we could all relate to. Over the years SNL has steadily gone off the rails attacking public figures. Not exactly a great path to take far as I'm concerned.

Think back to the original cast. Laraine Newman, John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, and Chevy Chase. Later on came Bill Murray, Al Franken, and Eddy Murphy to name a few. You'd be hard pressed to come up with any of their bits trashing public figures. If SNL did a bit on a public figure it was done with a good natured ribbing in mind.

I'll embed a couple of clips that show why SNL is nothing like it use to be. Maybe Lorne Michaels ought to take a look back and see why his show is tanking.



1984

My Toughest New Year Resolution Challenge Ever

Nearly every resolution I make, I break. Let's see how long this one will last-- To ignore all the imbecilic things Donald Trump says and does. Since it's not January 1st yet let me get a few things off my chest before I wrap this year up. There isn't anything this guy comes across he doesn't wreck by not offering a solution after he kicked them to the ground A few examples are healthcare/arms/trade/Iranian agreements.

Every friend or associate he ever had becomes his enemy if not a convict.

He'll never listen to anything that doesn't fit with his view of the world. Everything has to be either his way or the highway period!

The only thing that matters more then his family is himself. Nobody else counts. There's plenty more I could say. Let this be enough. I wasted too much time on this blog already on his buffoonery. I leave the rest in the capable hands of congress, investigators, the courts and fact checkers. I suspect even his supporters and FOX News eventually will wake up as he continues to drag this country down.

The thing about me is I only debate so much before my mind's made up. I've reached my wits' end fact checking knowing full well the guy is making stuff up as he goes along. So rather then spending another minute next year on this knucklehead or his supporters I intend to refocus on anything but him or they next year.

BTW Don't even think of leaving a disparaging comment. They will be deleted. I'm not in the mood. Besides this is the last one you'll have to look at if I can live up to my 2019 New Year's resolution. Wish me luck. I'll need it.

Not Too Late To Get Your Flu Shot

This post is a reminder if you haven't already it's still not too late to get vaccinated against the flue. There's been an uptick in the number of confirmed flu infections here in Pennsylvania.

Pa. Dept. of Health reports for the week ending 12/08/2018... 91 cases in Lehigh Valley
41 in Northampton County
A total of 1,245 cases throughout all of Pennsylvania

It will only get worse from here. Peak flu season is in January and February. However it can run late as March before it begins to taper off going into April.

Quick Fact Check Of Immigrants Still Waiting At Border

This immigration problem is being vastly overstated for political reasons.

Current estimates are there's only 2,500 immigrants still waiting to get in at our southern border. Each and every day it's estimated there are 6,775 deaths per day in the United States. The number of births per day around 10,829. Thus our current population growth is 4,054 people per day. This works out to 1,479,710 more people per year.

Even if we were to approve all of the original 5,000 immigrants they'd only represent a one time growth of less then .33%.

All 5,000 would amount to about half of the babies born in just one day.

We can think of this in yet another way. If all 5,000 were spread out across each of our states it would amount to less then 100 in each. Far less then most of our smallest towns and villages. Hell even less then the average size apartment complex for that matter. By the way.. Lincoln Financial Field's capacity is 69,176. Coca-Cola Park in Allentown capacity is 10,000 (8,100 seats). J. Birney Crum Stadium 15,000. PPL Center 8,500.

There's nothing wrong with reviewing our immigration policies, but let us not exploit them for political purposes. This isn't a national emergency. There are far larger issues to concern ourselves with. Like our financial support for the Saudi's ongoing war in Yemen. According to the UN and other sources, from March 2015 to December 2017, 8,670–13,600 people have been killed. A national debt of $21 trillion and growing. To name only two.

I consider this little more then manufactured crisis exploiting peoples' insecurities for political advantage. Protectionism at it's worst. Something evil leaders in the past hitched their horses to. Which had disastrous consequences.

Remember When Comedy...

* Didn't need to use swear words

* Didn't need canned laughter

* Didn't do politics

* When comedians only made fun of themselves


* When all of us could relate knowing somebody like this guy...


Talk about self-deprecating humor...
There's lots of ways to be funny without it being at the expense of others. Matter-of-fact the funniest stuff came from comedians making an idiot of themselves.