Before the election, the Board of Health was nearing the completion of their final report on the Bi-County Health Department, and they will soon present their findings to the two counties' elected officials. At issue is whether their proposal should be tabled until the economy recovers or banished forever, and whether this should happen in an unaccountable lame-duck session or after the election winners are seated. While I'm sure the incumbents would like to have the final say on this, it would be more fair to wait until after the election winners are seated. There's no practical reason that …
Last week Gov. Tom Corbett and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi raised Pennsylvania's profile in the 2012 Presidential race with a plan to change the way Pennsylvania awards its electoral votes. Mr. Pileggi would have Pennsylvania join two other states, Nebraska and Maine, in abandoning the winner-take-all system. One electoral vote would be awarded for each of the 18 Congressional districts, and the winner of the popular vote would receive two more. If this system had been in place in 2008, President Obama would have beaten John McCain by a narrow margin -- 11-10 -- rather than winning…
My colleague Margie Peterson recently wrote about the benefits of "smart growth" land use policies for cities like Easton and Bethlehem, whose dense downtowns are benefitting from renewed interest in city living. But if human-scale, walkable development is "smart," it's worth reflecting on what's not smart: the low-density sprawl, McMansions and Big Box shopping centers the region was building furiously in the outlying townships before the housing bubble burst. The reason this kind of development isn't smart is that it's simply not sustainable, economically, fiscally or environmentally. Over …
What shall we make of the Republican agenda for education? At the federal level, the goal appears to be to abolish the Department of Education. We are told that education is best left to the states, and the federal government should have no role. At the state level, Republican governors are cutting state aid to school districts. In Tom Corbett's spending freeze on the 2010-2011 budget, 93% of the $343 million in spending cuts will come out of aid to school districts. The savings are illusory - he is just passing the buck to local governments. At the school district level, we see Tea Party …
Editor's note: On Jan. 13 we brought you a story about the State of the Lehigh Valley event. Columnist Jon Geeting was there as well. Because there was a lot to digest, we're running his thoughts on the report in two parts.The State of the Lehigh Valley report could not have come out at a better time. Since 2011 is a municipal election year, voters will have the opportunity to decide whether their current representatives are being good stewards of the region's economy, or if they should be replaced with new people with better ideas. Looking at some of the problems outlined in the report, we …
