{"id":96391,"date":"2019-10-30T20:33:19","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T00:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=96391"},"modified":"2019-10-30T20:33:19","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T00:33:19","slug":"2020-budget-delivered-to-city-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=96391","title":{"rendered":"2020 BUDGET DELIVERED TO CITY COUNCIL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Allentown Mayor Ray O\u2019Connell delivered his proposed 2020 city budget to City Council this afternoon.\u00a0 The approximately $119 million spending plan holds the property tax rate stable at 7.31 mills.<\/p>\n<p>In his message to City Council, O\u2019Connell said, \u201cWe have righted the ship. The unrestricted cash reserve for General Fund operations at the beginning of 2020 is projected to exceed $12 million, a significant improvement from a year ago considering that more than $1 million in capital expenses were paid from operational funds for the first time in several years. A vibrant economy has resulted in strong growth rates for City tax collection, with business privilege tax receipts at record levels and with annual increases likely exceeding 5% in 2019 for earned income tax and deed transfer tax.\u00a0 These increases have proven timely, as wage and benefit costs continue to grow as well.\u00a0 Any slowing of economic growth will likely slow increases in tax collection, and we must plan for general City operations with a reasonable expectation of such an occurrence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Business Privilege Tax remains stable, as does the $52 Local Services Tax.\u00a0 The Refuse Collection and Stormwater Management fees remain flat.<\/p>\n<p>The budget continues O\u2019Connell\u2019s commitment to investments in public safety.\u00a0 Four new firefighters will enable 27-member platoons and subsequently return to full service the City\u2019s second aerial truck. Four new paramedics will enable a fully functioning third shift during overnight hours, ensuring residents of available rapid-response emergency medical services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Police will continue to have 222 budgeted positions in 2020, and the City expects to fill the remaining open positions during the year.<\/p>\n<p>The budget includes three percent wage increases for all bargaining unit and non-bargaining positions.<\/p>\n<p>Two new special purpose funds are created for the rental inspection program and for maintenance of city dams.\u00a0 Moneys designated for these funds will be dedicated entirely for these distinct purposes.<\/p>\n<p>Additional maintenance staff are included within the Stormwater Fund to speed-up necessary stormwater management improvements.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Connell will formally present the budget to City Council on Monday, November 4 at 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Council will conduct a series of budget hearings over the next 45 days.\u00a0 A new budget must be in place by December 15.<\/p>\n<p>The budget will be available on the city\u2019s website <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allentownpa.gov\/\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/www.allentownpa.gov&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1572553182847000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFbFS2yB3gTF1u1oFKaSGimnql78g\">www.allentownpa.gov<\/a> soon.<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nPam James<br \/>\nAdministrative Assistant to the Executive Director<br \/>\nCenter for Humanistic Change, Inc.<br \/>\n555 Union Boulevard, Suite #7 (2nd floor)<br \/>\nAllentown, PA 18109<br \/>\nwww.thechc.org<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><code class=\"code\">-AMAZONPOLLY-ONLYWORDS-START-<\/code><br \/>\n<div class='adkingprobanner sidebar banner3023'><a href='http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/' target=\"_blank\" data-id='3023' data-ga='{\"campaign\":\"\",\"banner\":\"\",\"implemented\":\"universal\",\"imp_action\":\"Impression\",\"click_action\":\"Click\"}'><img src='https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/inpostblank.jpg' alt='' \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class='adkingprobanner sidebar banner7036'><a href='http:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com' target=\"_blank\" data-id='7036' data-ga='{\"campaign\":\"\",\"banner\":\"\",\"implemented\":\"universal\",\"imp_action\":\"Impression\",\"click_action\":\"Click\"}'><img src='https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/inpostblank.jpg' alt='' \/><\/a><\/div>\n<code class=\"code\">-AMAZONPOLLY-ONLYWORDS-END-<\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?post_type=adverts_posts&p=7036\" class=\"read-more\">Click here to read more... <\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/allentown-budget.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96391"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/96392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}