Ackerman Blasts Allentown Arena Tax

Salisbury Township Commissioner Joanne Ackerman is outraged the township will not receive the earned income tax from Salisbury residents who work in the special 130-acre zone surrounding Allentown's new ice hockey arena.

"Why didn't we know about this?," Ackerman asked at last week's meeting. "Why wasn't this brought to our attention?"

Ackerman said she learned that Lehigh Valley townships will lose some of their residents' earned income tax in a recent article in The Morning Call. An irate Ackerman said the results for Salisbury Township "would be catastrophic."

about the potential financial impact on the township. Manager Jon Hammer said the loss of earned income tax could be in the six figures but the amount is not yet certain.

The Neighborhood Improvement Zone includes major employers such as PPL, The Morning Call and Sacred Heart Hospital, and future businesses that move into the area. The Lehigh County Courthouse and county office building are exempt.

"Here we sit with a budget and we don't know how short we're going to be," Ackerman said. "This is the money we were going to use to pay our bills and now all of sudden we're finding out this is going to be going to the arena?"

Township Manager Randy Soriano said Berkheimer Associates, which collects taxes for Lehigh County, is in the process of determining how much earned income tax Salisbury could lose. "The unknown right now is how many residents work at these locations," he said.

Pennsylvania's fiscal code was amended in 2009 by a bill sponsored by state Sen. Pat Browne (R-16th) that enabled local income tax generated by businesses in the 130-acre Neighborhood Improvement Zone surrounding the arena to help pay for the construction debt over the next 30 years.

Ackerman said the decision to use townships' earned income tax should have been voted on by the citizens, "not a bunch of people sitting in a room and deciding for us."

President James Brown agreed, "but they got this through the law and they buried it."

Soriano said the idea was to take a regional approach to the hockey arena, "but really, it only benefits Allentown."

Soriano said he did not think many legislators understood what they were voting on. "If you look at the bill, it's 124 pages and it's written by CPAs. Allentown didn't get on the phone and call everybody and say, 'Hey, by the way, this is what's going to happen.' The city knew what they were doing, I would think," he said.

Soriano said he thought only Allentown taxes were going towards the arena's construction cost.

Ackerman said the bill should have been presented in less obscure language.

"The citizens can't sit back and say, well it always happens. Because you know what? You really made us angry and we're going to do something about it," she said. "This is why people are so angry with our public officials because of things being done like this."

Soriano said although it would be an uphill battle to repeal the law, he suggested the commissioners find out what the impact will be on Salisbury, which legislators voted to change the fiscal code and ask them, "Did you know about this? Why did you vote for it?"

"It seems to be me if we're going to help build it we should be able to profit from it as well," said Commissioner Debra Brinton.