EASTON, Pa. — A new tax break for developers in Bethlehem will soon go into effect after Northampton County Council on Thursday approved a new Local Economic Relief Tax Assistance ordinance for the city.
Council also granted pay raises to shift supervisors at the county’s Juvenile Justice Center amid a persistent shortage of front-line youth care workers at the facility.
- Northampton County Council unanimously approved new tax breaks for development in 'deteriorated' parts of South Side Bethlehem
- City Council and the school district already approved the measure
- County Council also granted a raise to shift supervisors at the Juvenile Justice Center
The program designates certain parts of the city’s South Side as “deteriorated,” granting developers an exemption from some property taxes on what they construct there.
Builders still would pay taxes on the land’s value without their improvements.
The new ordinance, adopted unanimously by the council, extends tax cuts through 2027 for a smaller area of the city’s South Side than in years past and adds new incentives for affordable housing and sustainable construction.
Bethlehem City Council and Bethlehem Area School District have already signed off.
Qualifying developers would pay no property tax on what they build for the first year after its construction; the bill increases by 10% each following year, reaching 100% in year 11.
However, they still would pay full taxes on its value before they started construction.
In the new measure, the council added a requirement that 10% of a housing development’s units be affordable.
The council also enriched the tax break for developments that meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design sustainability requirements, set by the U.S. Green Building Council.
LEED Platinum certification, the organization’s highest level, exempts a developer from all property taxes on their construction for 10 years.
Granting juvenile center raises
Later in the meeting, the council granted a raise for supervisors at the Juvenile Justice Center to match their counterparts at the county prison.
The center has long faced a critical shortage of youth care workers, the front-line employees directly responsible for the children in custody.
In budget hearings last year, District Court Administrator Jermaine Greene said all the center’s employees’ pay should be raised to mirror the jail's, blaming the staff shortage on low pay.
The council is able to unilaterally set wages for supervisors, but not for youth care workers. Because they are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, their wages are set in negotiations between union representatives and County Executive Lamont McClure.
Greene said McClure offered to raise the youth care workers’ pay to the same level as their county prison counterparts, but union negotiators rejected the offer, sending the matter to arbitration.
“There are folks who say we wish we would get rid of the juvenile detention center. To me, these are core functions of the county.”County Council Vice President Ron Heckman
A date for arbitration has not been set, he said.
The employee shortage means the facility has to turn away some kids from outside Northampton County — several a day, according to Greene.
“There are folks who say we wish we would get rid of the juvenile detention center,” council Vice President Ron Heckman said. “To me, these are core functions of the county.”
Commissioner Kevin Lott said he wants to pursue an operational study of the center, similar to the one the council recently approved of Gracedale, which Greene said he welcomes.
Council member Lori Vargo Heffner suggested using the council’s Courts and Corrections Committee as a means to examine the center first.
Other counties have shuttered similar facilities in recent years – Lehigh County officials closed their juvenile detention center in 2014, a decision Greene said they since have come to regret.
