TIF Financing
Aug 17th, 2010 by Randy Toman
It appears the BASD, City of Bethlehem, the Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority, and the County of Northampton are locked into a dispute over the financial arrangements of projects there on the south side of Bethlehem, were the Bethlehem Steel once produced steel for this great country. We now have a Gambling Casino, Hotel on the site and soon to come other projects on the backs of the taxpayer.
The Bethlehem Area School District has sent out a press release dated August 12th 2010 letting the other party’s know were the BASD stands.
Press Release titled:
RE: PRIORITIES AND CONCERNS OF BETHLEHEM AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT REGARDING TIF FINANCING
I am writing this as private citizen and not as a reflection of the Concerned Citizens- Bethlehem Area School District (CC-BASD) board on which I sit, the CC-BASD board are not to be held responsible for the content of this article I placed on my “Blog”.
With that disclaimer and little back ground let me begin.
Over the past 18+months I have tried to impress upon the school board and the school district they do not appear to care for the taxpayer. I was told by one board member that there was no way they would consider a zero base budget and more then one board member told me there was no way they would consider not voting for a tax increase and could not agree to not raising taxes if needed and I say; when would the tax increase not be needed? The continual ploy was that they were doing it for the education of the children, all the while I was telling them the taxpayer could not afford these tax increases and they must hold the line.
In your Press Release you make statements like, “BASD and its Board of Directors are stewards of taxpayers dollars.” I don’t ever remember hearing any of the Board saying something like that. I counted 6 times in your press release were you stated your concern for the taxpayer and so state that, you included words like “Proper”, “Necessary” uses of the taxpayers money.
I have no idea or clue as to what woke you up to be concerned for the taxpayers and in fact I find those words somewhat disingenuous. Your care for the taxpayer was hidden all these 18+ months I have attended the school board meeting and to have them burst on to the scene is surprising, pleasing and comforting if in fact I could believe you were sincere. What I think you are doing is strengthening your position using the taxpayer, it is quite obvious the children nor the teachers can re-enforce your position so why not use the taxpayers as the pawn or should I say “Knight” to buttress your defense.
This whole scheme is putting the future generation of citizens/children into debt and it doesn’t really matter how you slice up the pie. You are only going to be concerned for the taxpayer until the slice of the pie seems right to the board, so let’s not give too much of an elusion the board cares for the Taxpayer.
Your Press Release makes it very clear, if this pie is sliced correctly as the board would like it to be, you have all intentions of moving ahead, so the press release states in the last sentence. Let me say, not so much for myself, but future generations, they will want to know how much this is going to cost them. Why don’t you tell the future taxpayers how much “Principal” and “Interest” this scheme will cost them and for how long?
We Shall See what is to happen, and shortly