ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Lehigh County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday gave final approval for the 2025 budget — which contains no property tax hike.
"I'm very happy that this budget does not have a tax increase in it," County Chief Fiscal Officer Tim Reeves said.
The vote was unanimous.
"This budget is not only for the taxpayers, but for the workers in Lehigh County."County Chief Fiscal Officer Tim Reeves
"This budget is not only for the taxpayers, but for the workers in Lehigh County," Reeves said. "This money is used for them to do their jobs, as efficiently and effectively as possible, so I wanted to thank them."
The budget, which originally was $534 million, now is calling for a total sum of $554 million and also includes provisions for emergency mental health services, demand for which has risen to crisis level, according to some local experts.
The 2025 budget has gone through several iterations over the past year before approving the final version.
Despite the plan to operate the county at a $5.3 million loss next year, commissioners say the difference will be covered by 2024's returns.
According to the county's budget from this year, those returns are set to total $145,718,170.00 by the end of this year.
Public comment
Before Wednesday's full commissioners meeting took place, there was a brief finance committee meeting, with a section for public comment.
Two people, via Zoom, chimed in.
One was Mary Tomlinson of Allentown, a former petitioner for the Help Not Handcuffs coalition, a group that advocates for mental health support as a possible alternative to incarceration.
She now is employed as a social worker in the county.
"There's plenty of evidence that [incarceration] destroys lives, and nowhere is that clearer than where we have mentally ill people being put into solitary confinement, where they just get worse and worse."Mary Tomlinson, Allentown resident who raised concerns about prison spending compared to one mental health initiative
"There's plenty of evidence that [incarceration] destroys lives, and nowhere is that clearer than where we have mentally ill people being put into solitary confinement, where they just get worse and worse," Tomlinson said.
"They certainly don't get better. So, you know, we need to do some soul searching."
Tomlinson made the case that despite there being $250,000 in the budget for the Pinebrook Community Intervention Program, it's not enough when compared with the $7,909,693 allotted to the Office of the Jail in the 2025 budget.
"We've got to turn this titanic expense allowance on helping people instead of incarcerating them," Tomlinson said.
The county has revised the budget to include more support for emergency mental health services, but not for the specific program to which Tomlinson referred.
Another speaker, Ed Angelo, said he agreed with Tomlinson's points.
The budget
The full budget document, available publicly from Lehigh County's website, is 490 pages long.
Some notable line items in the 2025 budget include:
- Grants and reimbursements: $38,594,748
- Intellectual disabilities fund: $10,172,391
- Personnel services within the county court system: $5,677,672
- Drug and alcohol treatment: $2,603,405
- Materials and operating supplies for general government operations: $3,386,119
The full budget, in its adopted form, is set to be available on the county's website.
