Neighborhood Improvement District Press Release

I am here today to support downtown homeowners. We talk about how we have to attract homeowners back to Easton, but many things we do discourage potential homebuyers from considering Easton when purchasing a home and growing deep roots in the community.  I believe strongly that bringing first time homebuyers to Easton is essential to assure a healthy, fiscally strong community. 

I am concerned how the proposed Neighborhood Improvement District will impact our current Downtown homeowners and future Downtown homebuyers.  I oppose any NID that has a negative fiscal impact on Downtown residents

Increasing property taxes by almost 30% is an unacceptable fiscal burden on DT homeowners.  They already endure many existing hardships to live in our DT.  As all homeowners in Easton they currently pay the highest property taxes in Northampton County.  As all resident they pay the highest Earned Income Tax rate in Northampton County.  They also have parking meters in front of their homes and they deal with event related traffic disruptions.

People will say wait a minute Mike it’s not a tax it’s a fee.  To that I say no matter how you try to disguise it or what you call it.   It is still a tax.  It is described in terms of millage based on assessed property value how can you call it anything but a tax.  I also have a problem with a shadow government of Authorities, Boards and Commissions administering the funds.  We allowed the Riverwalk project to be handled in much the same way resulting in a taxpayer expense of nearly a million dollars with nothing to show for it.  The Greater Easton Development Partnership has been in charge of extending the life of downtown Improvement programs since the Mitman administration.  It allowed the State funds to expire, it allowed the Lafayette College grant to expire with no viable plan to keep the programs running.  Now with all the funds spent, Easton’s elected officials stepped in and provided $417,000 dollars to keep the programs going.  I oppose using tax payer dollars to sweep the sidewalks of downtown merchants while our elderly residents struggle to keep their homes and pay their taxes.  Now supporters of the NID want it quickly pushed through without fair opportunity for dissent

I believe that the purpose of local government is to provide traditional basic services that we as residents can’t provide for ourselves.  Sidewalk sweeping is something we don’t need government to supply.  Pride is a state of mind not a mandate of government.

I would also like to take a minute to talk about a related topic, open government.  So far I believe City Council has handled the NID proposal poorly.  Closed door meetings, failing to publish the drafts, keeping dissenters in the dark, rushing the proposal forward with unacceptable timelines, counting the lack of a vote as a yes vote, then making excuses for the conduct. “Riverwalk Rerun”

Council owes residents an apology.  They should have known that having closed door meetings was questionable and rescheduled presentations for a public meeting.  I was happy to see Jeff Warren step up and at least acknowledge the mistake. I applaud him for his honesty.

I am calling for our elected officials to do the following.

1.     Direct Ms. Lippencot to make any draft proposals readily available in multiple forms to DT property owner.

2.     Make all information pertaining to the NID available on the City website as well as hard copies in a location like the Easton Library.

3.     In a specified time period, let’s say 30 days, to supply a ballot, not a push poll, to all DT property owners within the proposed district to decide if there is enough real support for the proposal to continue forward.

                                                                         Mike Krill

Krill for Mayor

     For too long our political leaders in Easton have risked taxpayer money on get rich, fix the budget quick, ego projects. There is no one time, multi-million dollar, multiuse, megaproject that will protect our long term fiscal stability. We have spent too much time on the tourists that spend a few hours here and not enough time on the people that spend a lifetime here.

     Our politicians constantly talk about the economic engine that is being built in our downtown. But the residents of Easton still struggle with the fiscal instability of City Government.  I do not have a problem with the economic engine growing with the fuel of entrepreneurship. But it seems many of our ego projects are stealing the fuel from the taxpayers.  Investing taxpayer money, whether Local, State or Federal, in high risk projects is not the answer.

     Most solutions to problems are not quick and easy, and are very seldom glamorous. Here is a basic outline of my plan.

            1.        Stop frivolous spending, 2 year spending freeze except for emergency repairs and replacements.  This will give us a chance to repair the budget, pay down debt and creative financing. Wean us off the practice of backfilling holes in our budget with state and federal funding that is intended to fund redevelopment projects  We also need to get a handle on our excessive use professional contracts.

            2.        We need to focus on traditional services.  When I ask residents, what City government is for, I hear them say: police, fire, road repairs, snow plowing, water and sewer.  This is what they expect for their tax dollars. We will develop a plan to make these services better, as well as making long term investments to assure these services will not be compromised in the future.

                        --For example,  Our water plant charged our residents the highest rates for 30 years.  Used the money to fill gaps in budgets.  made no reinvestment back into the plant. The result was that we had to give up control of the plant because we could not afford the upgrades to certify the plant.

            3.        Revisit the Charter.  Give people a choice Mayor or Manager we cannot afford both.  We must also look at restructuring management.  Council must be given back it's independence from the administration and at least restore on paper the checks and balances in city government. 

            4.        During our two frugal years we need to develop a strategic long range plan for redeveloping our neighborhoods in order to attract working class first time home buyers back to Easton.  This will not be easy, but I believe it is the only way to prevent long term fiscal strangulation.  We need new taxpayers, we need new consumers, and we need more good neighbors to overcome our problems. As I said, this will not be easy or glamorous.  We will build this plan, not with some consultant from out of town, we need to build it in cooperation with our citizens, codes, parking, appearance, curb appeal codes, utilities, policing, and others will all have to be taken into account. There have been some valiant efforts on this front being made by several organizations and agencies, but they lack the needed focus and support to be truly successful. I like to call this focused approach, the "Urban Oasis Program” Which I will detail at a later time. I believe this a simple but laborious formula for success.  As the campaign goes on I will discuss this initiative in more detail. 

      When your car is headed toward a cliff, what do you do?  Put on the brakes and turn in a different direction.  We need we need to take this action both with policy and leadership.  I will put on the brakes and steer in a new direction.  RESIDENTS FIRST!.

                                                          - Mike Krill