June 1, 2026
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
Back in 1956, Elvis Presley and friends formed The Million-Dollar Quartet and made music history.
Now, the Lehigh Valley has its own fearsome fiscal foursome: state senators Lisa Boscola, D-Bethlehem and Nick Miller, D-Allentown, and state representatives Bob Freeman, D-Easton, and Ann Flood, R-Northampton.
Those four gathered Thursday to announce that Lehigh Valley 250, a group few residents know of, would receive $1 million of state funds for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Our federal, state and local finances are racing toward potential disaster, but here’s $1 million for “bread and circuses,” as they called it back in the Roman times. Distract the people so nobody notices the impending mess.
If you enjoy watching politicians praise themselves and each other, and boast of being bi-partisan as they give taxpayers’ money to non-profit groups, here’s a link to 40 minutes of very special video from downtown Easton. They’re happy, and they should be; they’re in line for pensions, courtesy of the rest of us.
Now, $1 million may not seem like a lot. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has proposed a $53.3 billion budget for next year. That spending plan is balanced, if that’s the word, by taking $4.6 billion from the state’s reserves. That’s more than half of the reserves, meaning that financial engineering won’t be available for long.
The problem with such a budget and frivolous spending is that it’s all on borrowed time. It foreshadows a tax increase.
Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of our lives. Sales tax, income tax, why not both? Property taxes are already going up in school districts across the Valley.
This spending is not sustainable and every dollar spent today on something non-essential — such as a celebration — is pushing the state closer to the brink.
The U.S. faces a deficit that is approaching $40 trillion. The proposed Pennsylvania budget relies on billions from reserves.
Yet the four people above found a non-essential use for $1 million of state money. Was that the highest, best use of the money we are compelled to give to the government?
Someday, when a bridge collapses, or a road is ground down to dirt, or old people are locked out of their senior center, we can take consolation in the fact that the Lehigh Valley spent $1 million of taxpayers’ money on an extended July 4 party.
The whole situation is mind-boggling, and our governments and the founders of this feast — the local Million-Dollar Quarter — are paying no mind to it.
They’re ready for a party, but who will pick up the check?
Editor’s note: The original Million Dollar Quarter included Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Roy Orbison played with the group years later, after the death of Elvis.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 
Let’s close all the non essentials.. no more firework displays, no more parks, no more beautifications of any kind and no more anything that we don’t need to live and survive. Sterile living environments are fine.
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Actually, that is what will happen when governments run out of money and taxation hits its limit.
J. Ward
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I doubt it….let’s face it… we will NEVER run out of money as long as we can “print” money. We’ve been “printing” money for decades now and the interest rate paid on the “printed money” is under 5%. That means the markets assigns a low probability of default.
Eliminating the essentials and creating a sterile life style for everyday citizens is fine as long as the handouts for those who don’t want to work continue and those wealthy are ostrosized for creating wealth and not paying “their fair share”.
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The federal government can print money. State and local governments can’t. Also state and local governments must at least on paper balance their budgets.
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There is one exception, in some places local currency can be used but it’s very limited.
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See
https://berkshares.org
It’s a quirky thing.
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Local government can issue debt for capital projects, get (beg) more money from the federal government and play games (defer) with the pension fund.
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One of their favorite tricks is to slip operating expenses into bond issues. Today’s bill gets paid over decades.
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