Bethlehem Starts Spending Dirty Casino Money! YEAH!

We all knew that the Casino would bring in some money for Bethlehem, that was the whole idea. The idea was that they would give Bethlehem money and the city could spend it on all sorts of stuff, like more Fests and police patrols and cats that glow in the dark and Lisa Boscola’s bar tab.

So, depending on your stance, the fact that the Bethlehem budget increased by a few million dollars, but there will be no tax increase is 1. a good thing or 2. direct evidence that the city is now controlled by the seedy underworld.

Express-Times File PhotoJohn Callahan speaks in May 2008. Bethlehem won’t raise taxes next year despite increasing the budget by more than $6 million, Mayor John Callahan said this morning.

The city is expecting an almost $5.8 million increase in casino host fees and also is expecting its real estate assessments, earned income taxes and business privilege taxes to increase modestly, Callahan said at the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s annual business breakfast.

Callahan proposed keeping the city’s tax rate at 14.1 mills, with a possible decrease in 2012.

“We will work very hard to deliver a no-tax increase budget,” he said.

His overall proposed 2010 budget is $71.6 million compared to this year’s $65.5 million budget. The city’s two greatest expenditure increases next year will be salaries ($1.9 million) and health benefits ($1.6 million), Callahan said. Source

They better put some of this money toward a monorail, because, once a city has a monorail, it officially has “made it.”

Also, they should look into possibly bringing in more bars and tattoo shops, and if they could swing in some more hookah bars, that would be great.

Hey, maybe they could also bring in Musikfest Part II, set exactly at the halfway point between when Musikfest ends and begins. It’ll be cold, but, fuck, let’s theme it that way, only bring in bands that play in Canada and Iceland. I can see it now.