HARRISBURG, Pa. — State Senate Republicans are threatening state Revenue Secretary Pat Browne with prison time if he doesn't respond to a subpoena related to Allentown's one-of-a-kind Neighborhood Improvement Zone.
State Sen. Jarrett Coleman and Senate Republican leadership, including President Pro Tempore Kim Ward and Majority Leader Joe Pittman, introduced a resolution Wednesday that would require Browne to appear before the Senate and turn over detailed tax information from the NIZ.
As a state senator, Browne authored the special tax district, which lets approved developers working in a 128-acre area of Center City to repurpose newly generated tax revenues to pay off debt on their redeveloped properties.
NIZ supporters have hailed the zone for bringing in more than $1 billion of investment, creating a renaissance in Center City Allentown.
But critics have long been suspicious of the zone.
Senate Resolution No. 334 by LehighValley Newsdotcom on Scribd
One of the zone's most active developers has been J.B. Reilly, a childhood friend of Browne's. Others have argued the development has been of little help to other neighborhoods in the city.
Others argue the district lets Allentown developers draw in businesses with below-market rates, harming nearby communities.
Coleman, who ousted Browne from his Senate seat in 2022, has been skeptical of the NIZ for years and successfully lobbied the Senate last year to order a special audit of it.
While the Department of Revenue responded, it merged some categories of tax revenues into the same pool.
The decision prevented auditors from completing the audit as instructed by the Senate.
Mail ballots and drop boxes
Coleman and the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee have repeatedly requested the data and went as far as to subpoena it in July.
The tax data is collected by the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority, which oversees and manages the NIZ.
It releases annual budgets in compliance with state law, but like the Department of Revenue, groups some categories of tax revenue.
Browne has long worked to keep that data out of the public eye. While Browne was a state senator, he amended state law to block a Right-to-Know request by The Morning Call newspaper for the same tax information.
Some tax categories of NIZ revenues, he said, have so few taxpayers in them that releasing the information would amount to releasing the tax returns of some individuals and businesses.
That has done little to placate state Senators.
While Democratic lawmakers have argued the subpoena is requiring Browne to commit a misdemeanor by releasing private tax information, the Republican majority contend the General Assembly has broad investigative powers to act as a check on the executive branch.
Wednesday's resolution would authorize the Senate to imprison Browne in the Dauphin County Jail until Nov. 30 if he does not divulge the tax data as requested.
