Allentown's Neighborhood Improvement Zone was a concern at the Lower Macungie Township Board of Supervisors on Feb. 2, as it stands to lose substantial money to the NIZ Arena Project.

The 1-percent earned income tax paid by Lower Macungie residents who work in Allentown have potentially been committed to the NIZ project instead of being routed back home where the municipality gets half the money and the East Penn School District gets the other half.

In 2011, Lower Macungie Township collected more than $5.6 million in EIT from its residents. Not all of them work in Allentown.

But the earned income taxes collected from Lower Mac residents who work at PPL, Sacred Heart Hospital could be used to build the new arena as explained in a recent Morning Call story.

Neighboring townships fear they could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Lower Macungie Township Manager Bruce Fosselman will join South Whitehall Township Manager Jon Hammer and others at a meeting with Rep. Pat Browne on Feb. 16 to get some answers. Browne authored the 2009 bill that created the 130-acre NIZ.

Fosselman said he will have a report at the next BOC meeting, also on Feb. 16.