Lehigh County Tea Party Meeting Last Night

I'm not referring to some local political action group. Rather this is about the Lehigh County Commissioners' meeting last night (10/09/2013).

At Wednesday's meeting commissioners approved blocking county benefits for married employees of the same sex by a 5 to 4 vote.. In further actions commissioners are proposing another $2.4 million in cuts to try and bridge a $10.3 million shortfall in next year's 2014 budget. There are 13 proposals in all. You can read all the details HERE. And more of the particulars HERE.

I called this a Tea Party meeting for a reason. Whenever and wherever Tea Party aficionados get elected, tax cuts, layoffs and resultant service cuts are soon sure to follow.

How did Lehigh County get in this pickle? * Budget for 2011-- "Cunningham's plan would deplete a $4.4 million tax relief fund by giving residents a onetime 4 percent discount on their tax bills." More can be found in in THIS PRESS RELEASE

* Budget for 2012-- "Lehigh County Executive Bill Hansell new budget proposal calls for a $3 million permanent tax cut, $3.5 million in non-personnel cuts and a one-time tax credit of $3.5 million" Five commissioners wanted even deeper tax cuts, but "The five Republican commissioners who proposed an amended budget calling for deeper tax and spending cuts failed to woo a sixth vote needed for the super-majority that could have overridden Hansell's veto."

* Budget for 2013-- "The proposed budget includes the $6.5 million one-time expiring tax credit for county taxpayers."
Is it any coincidence that all this tax cutting nonsense began in 2011 when three Tea Party darlings got elected in 2011? I think not!

All this tax cutting sounds swell on the surface, but it comes at a price. Lehigh County has been dipping into it's reserve funds and has been cutting employees and services for the last three years to make them happen. The question is why?

Had none of these tax cuts totaling $10.9 million over the last three budgets been made, there wouldn't be $10.3 million gap in 2014. These previous cost cutting measures in 2011-2013 were a good start. Everyone knew (or should have known) we were draining the reserves at the same time along with them just so we could hand out these tax reductions. Even if no one anticipated the huge increase Cedarbrook has requested for 2014, we'd still be sitting pretty. And all of this without increasing taxes over the last 4 years!

This is what happens when you take a ride on the Tea Party express. Cutting taxes means less services, fewer jobs and what's becoming a dysfunctional county government. Now one of them wants to be elected as Lehigh County's top executive.