Schools

Allentown Hockey Arena Could Impact East Penn Budget

Neighborhood Improvement Zone will use all non-property taxes collected in the zone to finance construction of the Allentown hockey arena.

The new Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) will likely impact East Penn School District’s 2012-2013 budget by pulling tax dollars away from the district to pay for the downtown hockey stadium, according to Charles Ballard, president of the .

Calling it a “probable hit on our budget,” Ballard told those in attendance at the board’s Jan. 23 meeting to “stay tuned” while the board looks into just what the NIZ will mean to East Penn.

Ballard and the East Penn administration first learned that the district will lose earned income tax to the arena construction project from a recent report in The Morning Call. According to the report, the earned income tax generated in NIZ will be set aside in an arena construction fund rather than going back to the municipalities where those workers live. Sen. Pat Browne wrote the law creating the NIZ, the report said.

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What that means, Ballard explained, is that people who live in the district and work in places like PPL and Butz Construction will be paying for the arena instead of East Penn schools.

Ultimately, Ballard said, whatever monies aren’t used for the stadium project will be returned to the district. But, in his opinion, such promises don’t mean very much.

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“All of the money will go into the fund,” Ballard said. “They will use it to pay off the mortgage on the arena. Knowing how the Allentown government operates, I doubt that there will be anything left.”


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