Act 47

My Reliable Sources: City Appears To Be On Verge of Act 47

A breaking news alert from The Morning Call has just confirmed what this blog reported over 24 hours ago, that the city of Allentown is headed for an Act 47 filing. (Not that Perspectives was given any credit in the paper for breaking this story, but the readers know where they heard it first.)

In typical City Hall fashion, the Pawlowski administration is still denying it, but both Jarrett Renshaw’s and my sources say it is going to happen.

And since I’m on a roll here, I will take this opportunity to reprint something I wrote over five years ago…

Emergency Medicine: Although not perfect, Act 47 could relieve Allentown’s symptoms of financial distress

Maybe I should add the title “psychic” to the other jobs I do.

The arrogance and hubris of this administration for waiting to do what should have been done years ago is a legacy for which it will always be remembered. So all the deception and obfuscation was for nothing but to drive the city further in to debt. Congratulations on putting ego ahead of the needs of Allentown.

Blogger’s Note, 4/6, 2:10 p.m.: City Hall is denying there will be an Act 47 filing. At this point I’m sticking by my sources. I suspect one or both of two things are going on: What the city is really about to apply for is Act 205, the Municipal Plan Funding and Recovery Act and in the game of “whisper down the lane” that information was transformed into Act 47. And/or the unions got wind of a possible bankruptcy filing and decided to strike the first blow. But the bottom line is, something is going on. The city is drowning and it’s looking for a lifeline. Stay tuned…

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The Handling of Other People’s Money

In all the years I’ve been writing and blogging, I’ve run very few ‘blind items’. I don’t do it because there’s so much good stuff to write about that I can openly source that I don’t have to resort to “unnamed officials” who spoke on the condition of anonymity.  But this is not one of those times.

According to some closely placed sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, down at Allentown City Hall, the phrase, “Act 47” is reverberating through the hallways. You may remember that just two weeks ago, The Morning Call reported and this blog commented on the fact that the $10 million borrowed bailout isn’t working quite the way we were all led to believe it would. With a lot of bills coming due in the next year or two, the option of entering the state’s municipal fiscal distress program may be looking like it might be the only way out.

And then there’s the story about a regional organization that decided to create a non-profit foundation so they could give money away to projects they wanted to support. Just one little problem: The foundation has been giving away more money than they’ve been taking in. Where did they get the money from? They’ve been borrowing it from the organization with which they’re affiliated. The foundation is now in debt to the “mother ship” for well in to six figures. So much so that at least one donor who became aware of the situation has decided to not honor this year’s pledge. 

Looks like there’s going to be a lot of talk soon about how people handle other people’s money. Where is Donald Trump when you need him? 

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