Northampton County’s Budget Passes; No Tax Increase in 2025, and a Discourse on the Odd Word `Millage’

— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs

Northampton County’s property tax will remain unchanged in 2025.

That was settled at County Council’s meeting Thursday evening. I didn’t attend or watch, but did see County Executive Lamont G. McClure’s post on Facebook last night:

“7th Budget passed. 6 no tax increase budgets. One with a tax cut in ’22. Night.”

And that was all. I didn’t have to go anywhere, or even watch a meeting on the county’s YouTube channel. After years of going to meetings and hearing about non-agenda items — religion, feelings, misplaced anger and drainage swales — I’ve taken to the new, lazy form of journalism.

I’ve revealed that because most people never get to the fourth paragraph of a story. For you determined folks who did, it will be our secret.

The county’s 2025 budget is $502 million, about a half-billion dollars, and the real estate tax will be 10.8 mills, or $540 on a property assessed at $50,000. Millage is an archaic term, from the Latin mille (as is millenium). In this case, a mill means $1 for $1,000 of value.

The budget is lower than last year’s.

The County Executive has a big edge in setting the budget: a full-time staff, access to lots of information. The administration, the Executive’s branch of the government, also is the only body authorized to project revenue. That’s a powerful tool.

County Council recommends changes, but they are usually small. The Executive gets what he wants.

For those who don’t follow county government much, a lot gets done in Easton. The county operates the prison, the court system, lots of human services that many people never know about, the Gracedale nursing home, the 911 system, a lot of parks, and more.

Sometimes it seems that unless somebody has a relative in prison or in Gracedale, they don’t think much about county government.

The McClure Facebook post, by the way, refers to the 2025 budget as his seventh. Six left taxes unchanged, and one cut them. He contends the county has been “overtaxed” and his administration is bringing spending into line.