Great news from Lehigh County!

Well, great news from Lehigh County! The proposed funding and position cuts were all defeated! Our Main Street program and the funding and grants that support it remain fully in tact! See the E-mail from the County Executive for more information:


Dear Friend,
Earlier this week, I wrote you to make you aware of proposed funding cuts for my 2009 budget that would have affected your organization and/or initiatives in which we are partnered or you are interested.

We had tremendous response to that outreach and many of you showed up for Thursday night’s Board of Commissioner budget hearing. Instead of being voted on in relative darkness, with you being there it created an open discussion in clear light Thursday night. I am happy to report that because of that response – and the strong support of a majority of the Commissioners – all of those proposed cuts were defeated.

Therefore, the 2009 Lehigh County budget will contain the funding levels that I proposed for:

Quality of Life grants to more than 20 cultural arts and community organizations
Farmland preservation
Open space preservation
Borough revitalization funding
Community partnership grants for townships
Community police matching grants
Urban parks funding
Brownfield/industrial land economic development
Regional economic development funding
Passenger rail study/mass transit funding

Remember, the 2009 budget is a modest 1.1 percent higher than this year’s budget. It contains NO tax increase and continues a balanced investment in the operations of Lehigh County government while supporting our community partnerships, our downtowns, public safety, our cultural arts institutions and community events, regional efforts across municipalities, mass transit and passenger rail development, preservation of open space and farmland and the development of urban parks.

I honor those partnerships with our municipal governments, our community and cultural arts organizations and our various partners, like LVEDC and the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. Together, we make Lehigh County and the Lehigh Valley a very special place. Thanks for your help.

For more information on the 2009 budget, please contact the County Executive Office at 610-782-3001.

Sincerely,

Don Cunningham