Posted 6:16 PM by Mike
By ERIN DOOLITTLE
Pocono Record Writer
edoolittle@poconorecord.com


TANNERSVILLE — Great Lakes Companies has agreed to foot the bill for a traffic light and turn lane at the Interstate 80 Scotrun exit, smoothing the way for its development of a 400-room, water-themed hotel there.

The new target date for breaking ground is November, with an opening date in spring of 2005, two years later than originally planned. The project was delayed by the permitting process, particularly the traffic concerns.

Great Lakes still needs to finalize other permits, like sewer and water, but no holdups are expected, Sather said. Lastly, it will present its final land development plan to Pocono Township.

The installation of a light and right-hand turn lane should improve the troublesome exit despite the additional traffic generated by the resort, said Tom Sather, director of development for Great Lakes Companies.

"The engineers think it will be better than it is now," he said.

The resort plans to tap into a public water line being extended up Route 611 to Swiftwater. The line currently ends in Bartonsville. Construction is expected to begin within the next month and will take about 18 months.

Great Wolf Lodge will install a "package plant" to handle sewage. Treated wastewater will be used to irrigate the grounds, Sather said. Overflow will be discharged into Pocono Creek.Most of the water used in the water park is recirculated, he said.

"(The water usage) is more like a large indoor swimming pool than an outdoor water park," Sather said.

The resort, located on 100 acres between Interstate 80 and Route 611, is one of two large hotels going up in the area. In nearby Bartonsville a four-story $12 million Holiday Inn being developed by Joe Darlak is under way.

The Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau is not encouraging the creation of more hotel rooms right now, but these two projects are unique, said executive director Bob Uguccioni.

"We don't need all kinds of new rooms," he said. But, "These are two vastly different operations. The Holiday Inn is a resort complex and the water park is so unique that it will be a success because of its uniqueness."

Pennsylvania has been a tougher nut to crack than the other Great Wolf Lodge locations, said Sather. The permitting process is "much more stringent," he said.

"It makes my life more difficult but it protects the taxpayers," said Sather.



Copyright © July 30, 2003, Pocono Record
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Posted 2:51 PM by Mike


HARRISBURG — There's a map of Pennsylvania that illustrates the problem with treating school property tax reform as something for just the locals to deal with.

The map put out by the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools shades school districts in the suburban metro areas in a light color and school districts in the rest of the state in a dark color. The 127 light-shade districts have an average personal income above the statewide average personal income of $39,223 for 1999; the 374 dark-shade districts, including those in Monroe and Pike counties, have average personal incomes below the statewide average.

The relevance of this is that three-fifths of the 501 school districts probably have an insufficient local income tax base to undertake a major shift away from reliance on school property taxes to some type of local income tax to fund public education.

The problem is compounded in the Poconos. Many of the thousands of New York commuters pay income taxes at their places of employment and, as a result, they get a credit that wipes out their obligation to pay any type of income tax in this state.

So why did the state Senate this week pass a school referendum bill this week that seeks a shift to local income taxes?

The bill would require the school districts to hold referendums to let local voters decide whether they want to lower school property taxes in exchange for paying a higher local earned income or "wage" tax.

The local earned income tax is a levy on wages, salaries and commissions, so it doesn't even tax the income from investments that a personal income tax does.

The short answer is that Senate Republican leader Robert Jubelirer, R-30, wanted the bill to pass.

Jubelirer has toiled long and hard on property tax reform. He sincerely believes that local taxpayers should have a say in how they are taxed to pay for education. He candidly acknowledges that his bill doesn't pretend to address every facet of the complicated property tax issue, but it gives voters a choice.

Having acknowledged that, you might ask: What good is giving the voters a choice if that choice won't lead to workable tax reform?

In the 374 school districts with average personal income levels below the statewide average, the question becomes: How high would the rate of the earned income tax have to be set in order to generate the replacement revenues needed to operate the schools?

The Pocono region stands out as a special case because school districts there have led the state in the size of property tax hikes over the past decade.

The weak local income tax base is a big factor in this. As a result of the property tax hikes, Pocono taxpayers pay a higher percentage of their income to school property taxes than taxpayers anywhere else in the state.

To achieve property tax cuts under Jubelirer's bill, taxpayers in the Pocono region would have to pay an earned income tax at a higher rate than anywhere else in the state.

Look at the EIT rate at 4.2 percent suggested for Pocono Mountain School District to achieve a 35 percent cut in property taxes. Compare this with the EIT rate at 2 percent to allow for a 39 percent property tax reduction in income-rich Lower Merion School District in suburban Montgomery County.

If Jubelirer is serious about taxpayer choice, why not draft a bill that puts other tax options on the ballot for those numerous districts where a shift to the local earned income tax or local personal income tax is just not practical?

This brings us to the role played by Sen. James Rhoades, R-29, in the debate over the bill. Rhoades, the Senate Education Committee chairman, has worked as long on education funding issues as Jubelirer has on property taxes. He has come to believe that tapping state income tax revenues is the way to achieve property tax cuts, compensate for the weak local income tax base in many districts and achieve equity in what rich and poor schools spend to educate each pupil.

On the first night of the property tax debate, Rhoades asked his colleagues to show some courage and support his amendment to increase the rate of the state personal income tax from 2.8 percent to 4.8 percent in order to cut property taxes and redistribute state education aid to help bridge the equity gap in per-pupil spending between rich and poor districts. Only four senators voted with Rhoades.

On the second night, Rhoades showed some courage himself. He was the sole GOP senator to vote against the caucus leadership on the referendum bill. He told his colleagues that shifting to the local earned income tax won't solve the problems with education funding in Pennsylvania.



Copyright © June 29, 2003, Pocono Record
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Posted 4:18 AM by Mike

HARRISBURG (AP) — Ignoring a veto threat from Gov. Ed Rendell, Republican senators on Wednesday passed their plan ordering school districts to ask voters in a November vote whether they want to swap a local earned income tax hike for a reduction in their property taxes.

The bill passed on a near party-line vote, becoming the second major Republican-sponsored bill to pass this week under threat of a veto by the Democratic governor.

"This bill is fair, it is workable, it is responsible and it is responsive to the taxpayers," said the Senate's president pro tempore, Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair.

The bill passed 27-22, with one Democrat crossing party lines to vote for the bill and two Republicans voting against it. A two-thirds majority — 34 votes — would be needed to override a veto.

Rendell so far has failed to persuade GOP senators to advance his proposals to increase income taxes and authorize slot machines as a way to finance a property-tax reduction and a state education-funding increase.

Democrats contend that the Republican solution to rising property taxes is merely a tax swap that does not solve the problem, and arguments by both sides on the Senate floor were long, partisan and tart.

Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, predicted that passage of a GOP bill that draws a Rendell veto will force legislators to work well into July or beyond to strike some sort of compromise — well after lawmakers are supposed to have begun their traditional two-month summer vacations around July 1.

"I believe (Rendell) has a constitutional obligation to veto it, because if he didn't, he'd be a hypocrite because that's not how he got elected," Fumo said.The bill would allow voters in individual districts to eliminate as much as $2.2 billion of the $7.2 billion in property taxes assessed by school districts, replacing them on a dollar-for-dollar basis with a local earned income tax on wages, salaries and net profits.

The Republican property-tax plan would require November voter referendums in most of the state's 501 school districts on whether to swap lower property taxes for a higher local earned-income tax.

It is modeled on a 1998 tax reform law known as Act 50 that allows school districts to increase local income taxes to offset reductions in property taxes and the elimination of "nuisance" taxes — if voters approve. Under that law, voters must approve any subsequent increase in property taxes above a certain percentage.

Democrats say the law was largely a failure because only a handful of districts have used it, but Jubelirer blamed school boards for being unwilling to allow voters to have the choice to consider it.

Democrats also contend that local earned-income taxes target the less wealthy because they exempt capital gains. Republicans counter that many senior citizens rely on such investment income.

Exempt are Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, which have wage taxes, and the handful of school districts that already have approved an Act 50 referendum or have been taken over by the state.

The bill includes protections against school districts later raising property taxes higher than the rate of inflation, except in certain emergencies such as a disaster or a court order that requires money to be spent beyond district means.



Copyright © June 26, 2003, Pocono Record
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Posted 3:11 PM by Mike
ROBERT B. SWIFT
Ottaway News Service
rbswift2@aol.com

HARRISBURG — Senate Minority Leader Robert Mellow unveiled a school property tax cut plan Monday that he says will offer a better deal to Monroe County taxpayers than the proposal pushed by the chamber's Republican leaders.

The gist of the Senate Democratic caucus proposal is to rely on a smaller state income tax hike, two other state tax hikes and revenues from slot machines at the racetracks in order to cut school property taxes by $1.5 billion, as Gov. Ed Rendell proposed earlier this year.

Mellow, D-22, said the plan would bring the same 60 percent average cut in school residential property taxes to the four Monroe County school districts that Rendell has proposed.

The caucus proposal would be funded through a 0.4 percent increase in the rate of the state personal income tax — from 2.8 percent to 3.2 percent — and hikes in the smaller state beverage and cellular communication taxes in the initial year.

As the flow of slot machine revenues increases, the rate of the personal income tax would decrease to 3 percent in 2004-'05 and to 2.95 percent in 2005-'06 under the proposal.

The caucus proposal doesn't address new school programs or deal with equity funding issues; thus the 0.4 percent hike in the personal income tax rate is much less than Rendell's initial proposal to hike the personal income tax to 3.75 percent in order to fund new education programs.

The Democrats, who control only 21 votes in the 50-member Senate chamber, intend to offer their proposal as an amendment to the GOP-sponsored school property tax referendum bill.The GOP bill requires the 501 school districts to hold referendums to let voters decide if they want to shift away from reliance on school property taxes to a local earned income or "wage" tax. Senate GOP leaders say this requires school boards to put more decision-making in the hands of local voters.

Under the GOP proposal, the four school districts in Monroe County could achieve school property tax cuts in the 34 percent to 40 percent range if they approve earned income tax hikes in the 2.3 percent to 4.2 percent range.

East Stroudsburg, Pleasant Valley and Stroudsburg school districts levy the earned income tax at a rate of .50 percent, while Pocono Mountain School District doesn't levy an earned income tax.

Mellow says several Pocono districts could find themselves levying the earned income tax at even higher rates if they want to cut school property taxes to the fullest extent possible.

"School districts such as Wallenpaupack, Pocono Mountain and East Stroudsburg would have to impose wage taxes above 5 percent to maximize the homestead exemption under the Republican approach," he added. "This would be more than a 12-fold increase above the 0.4 percent (personal income tax) increase we would support."

He criticized the earned income tax as a levy that hits working families dependent on paychecks much harder than the wealthy taxpayers with income tucked away in investments.

The local earned income tax is levied on wages, salaries, commissions and compensation — giving it a narrower base than the state personal income tax, which is levied on salaries as well as income from stock dividends and other investments.

Mellow noted pointedly that the three Monroe County senatorial districts held by GOP Sens. James Rhoades, R-29; Charles Lemmond, R-20; and Charles Dent, R-16, would emerge as big winners under the proposal in terms of state income tax revenue coming to their school districts.


Copyright © June 24, 2003, Pocono Record
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Posted 3:09 PM by Mike

By ROBERT B. SWIFT
Ottaway News Service
rbswift2@aol.com



HARRISBURG — Sandra Cadiz held a standard bearing the American flag and listened intently as a succession of speakers described how the American dream of homeownership is fading for her and thousands of other Monroe Countians.

Cadiz and her husband, Raymond, took a vacation day Monday to come to the state Capitol and participate with 30 others in a rally aimed at pressing Gov. Ed Rendell and prosecutors at the state and federal level to take tougher action to prosecute wrongdoers involved in the real estate fraud scandal in the Poconos.

"We want justice," said Sandra as the rally organized by the Pocono Homeowners Defense Association concluded.

The Cadizes purchased a home in Chestnuthill Township, and, like many newcomers to the Poconos in recent years, discovered lat-er there was a big difference in the purchase price they paid for their home and the home's actual market value. They are making high mortgage payments based on that inflated purchase price.

"We are struggling paying the mortgage," said Raymond.

The plight of the Cadizes and other families caught up in the real estate fraud scandal has the attention of state lawmakers representing the county. Reps. Kelly Lewis, R-189; Mario Scavello, R-176; Thomas Tigue, D-118; and Monroe County Democratic Chairman Bernie Kennedy all spoke at the association's rally.

But the association is looking for new allies, the governor chief among them.

In a speech, association spokesman Al Wilson asked Rendell to order an investigation into the actions of state regulatory agencies and local officials who oversee mortgage practices. He also called on Rendell to issue a public statement saying justice will be delivered to homeowners, especially those who lost homes to foreclosures.

Wilson also asked federal prosecutors to bring in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the real estate practices.

"Ninety-five percent of the foreclosures are due to housing fraud, inflated appraisals and predatory lending and interstate crimes that should be investigated by the FBI," Wilson said.

The group later delivered a petition to the governor's office. The state Attorney General's Office is conducting parallel criminal and civil investigations into alleged illegal real estate practices, said Barbara Petito, spokeswoman for Attorney General Michael Fisher.

The office has intervened informally to either get lenders to forestall action or agree to accept lower mortgage payments in 100 potential foreclosure cases and taken formal action in five cases to halt foreclosures, said Petito.



Copyright © June 24, 2003, Pocono Record
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Posted 1:19 PM by Mike

By ERIC MARK
Pocono Record Writer
emark@poconorecord.com

It's official.

This is the wettest June on record in Monroe County.

As of 8 p.m. Saturday — the first day of summer — 11.68 inches of rain had fallen in East Stroudsburg this month, shattering the 31-year-old record set in June 1972, when Hurricane Agnes dumped torrents of rain throughout the eastern United States.

"We're getting into pretty remarkable territory here," said Ben Gelber, a television meterologist in Columbus, Ohio, who still monitors weather in East Stroudsburg, where he grew up. "We actually broke the record Friday night."

Through Thursday, 8.52 inches of rain had fallen this month in East Stroudsburg. Friday added another 1.64 inches, and Gelber recorded 1.52 inches on Saturday, as of 8 p.m., when it was still raining steadily. He was home for the weekend, visiting his family.

It's not just the rain, it's the cold.

Saturday's high temperature in the Stroudsburgs was 60 degrees, Gelber said — and that was recorded at midnight. During the day, the temperature hovered between 56 and 58 degrees.

"This is about as cold as it can get for the first day of summer," Gelber said.

The only time a lower maximum temperature was recorded on June 21 was in 1972, Gelber noted.

"Temperatures on the plateau on Saturday were in the low 50s," Gelber said. "The wind gusts reached 20 mph at times, which results in a wind chill in the high 30s. It's bizarre to be talking about wind chill on the first day of summer."

The cool, wet weather the Poconos experienced throughout the spring resulted from cyclical atmospheric patterns left over from a harsh cold winter, Gelber said, a phenomenon known as "atmospheric memory."

Stroudsburg had its fifth-snowiest winter on record, with 85 inches, and the highest reaches of the plateau region, near the border of Monroe and Wayne counties, unofficially recorded up to 175 inches of snow, the most ever.

"The weather map looks like it's January," Gelber noted. "It's as if winter never went away."

Gelber said a phenomenon known as "cut-off flows" is responsible for June's constant rain.

"These flows get cut off from the jet stream, and get stuck, spinning around and around like a top," he said. "They stick around for days."

Rain fell on 15 of the first 21 days in June, said Gelber, who predicts up to another inch of rainfall today.

"It will be more of the same on Sunday; the bulk of the day will be mainly gray and chilly," Gelber said. "There might be a few dry intervals, and the sun might even peek out for a few minutes, but more rain is a sure bet."

Relief should arrive on Monday, according to Gelber, who anticipates a warm, mostly dry week ahead.

He predicts temperatures will climb well into the 80s by midweek, possibly approaching 90 degrees in the Stroudsburgs.

"It will be moderately humid, but not oppressive," Gelber said. "There will still be leftover moisture in the air."

Gelber described weather patterns in the Poconos over the last two years as "all or nothing," noting that average monthly temperatures in the region were at or above average for 14 consecutive months through last September, while the last eight months have been colder than normal, with June likely to stretch that streak to nine months.

"It's difficult to figure," Gelber said. "It's a very strange series of events we're seeing."

Weather-related problems could continue for several days after the drenching rains end, Gelber cautions.

"Our immediate concern will be swollen creeks and streams over the next 36 hours or so," Gelber said. "A few could be at risk of overflowing their banks. Just because the rain quits, that doesn't mean the flooding danger is over."

Gelber strongly cautioned against swimming, boating, or fishing for several days, until water levels recede.

"No one should even think about recreation on water right now," Gelber said. "The water will be running high and fast for quite awhile, even if the sun is shining."

There is an outside chance this month could be the wettest ever in the Poconos, Gelber said.

The record monthly rainfall in East Stroudsburg is the 15.63 inches that fell in August 1955, the month in which a historic flood washed away bridges and homes and killed dozens of people in Monroe County.

June's rain total could surpass 13 inches by the time the storm ends today.

Gelber found one silver lining to the recent stormy clouds.

"At least this summer we won't repeat the drought of 2002," he said.

Copyright © June 22, 2003, Pocono Record
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Posted 1:17 PM by Mike

By WILLIAM DOOLITTLE
Pocono Record Writer
wdoolittle@poconorecord.com

What do exterminators and auto parts stores have in common?

Buckets and buckets of rain are flooding their businesses with customers.

This June's sodden Pocono homeowners are fighting platoons of ants doing what comes naturally, coming in from the rain.

At the same time humans are going through windshield wipers like they are going out of style.

"We are swamped," said Larry Smith of L&L Pest Control in Stroudsburg, using apt phraseology because Northeast residents are beginning to feel as if they live in a swamp this summer.

"We are selling windshield wipers out the backside," said Robert Feldman, manager of National Auto Stores in Mount Pocono.

"People will take whatever they can get, we can barely keep windshield wipers in stock," Feldman added.

The ants are coming indoors to escape the drenching rain, Smith explained, and they are finding more food in the kitchen than they can scrounge in the soaked ground.

Smith said ants, too, must be careful in rain.

"Think of an ant and what happens if they get slammed by a raindrop. No wonder they want to be in your house."

To make matters worse, the ants decide to settle down when it rains continuously.

They make their nests in the house, instead of outdoors, said Smith who joked that he has a "No ants allowed" sign on his house.

Smith and his two helpers are working 12- and 14-hour days struggling to keep up with the business of battling ants that have decided, like the man who came to dinner, to stay.

As for wipers, Field pointed out that the hard winter had already torn up wiper blades and the wounded wipers succumbed to the 2003 deluge otherwise known as summer in the Northeast. Not only are the wiper blades falling apart at alarming rates, the arms are tiring out and need replacing, said Feldman.

Looking ahead Smith sees a break in the downpours this week, but not falling off of ant infestations because they have become comfortable in "even the nicest homes in town."

With the sun, he predicts, the wasps will come, too.

Copyright © June 22, 2003, Pocono Record
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Posted 12:11 PM by Mike

The Pocono Homeowners Defense Association will stage a protest in Harrisburg Monday of alleged local real estate fraud.

The group plans a march and speeches at 11 a.m. in the state capital rotunda. Participants plan to call upon Gov. Ed Rendell to launch an investigation of state regulatory agencies and Monroe County officials as to their roles in what PHDA calls a lack of action to prevent and prosecute questionable mortgage practices.

The group also wants the governor to personally request the U.S. Attorney's Office order the FBI to re-enter the investigation. The FBI pulled out of an interagency task force on questionable Poconos real estate practices — comprising federal, state and county agencies — shortly after it was formed. The task force went on to issue findings, including recommendations for follow-up investigations of scores of individuals.

Those findings have been turned over to the state Attorney General's Office, which launched one civil suit, promised another and convened a criminal grand jury.

But PHDA says state and federal authorities have failed to act in a timely manner, particularly as alleged victims continue to lose their homes.

"It's an unjust situation," said spokesman Al Wilson. "People are losing their homes. We need help."

Local rally participants plan to depart for Harrisburg from 10 Orchard View Drive, across from Heckman's Orchard in Effort, at 8 a.m. Monday. The public is invited to catch a ride there or to follow the caravan to Harrisburg. Take Route 115 to Maltese Road to reach Orchard View Drive.

For more information call Wilson at (570) 643-3189.

— David Pierce

Copyright © June 21, 2003, Pocono Record
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Posted 6:48 PM by Mike

By KEVIN AMERMAN
Pocono Record Writer
kamerman@poconorecord.com


STROUDSBURG — A decision made by Gov. Ed Rendell on Tuesday could help move along the lingering Stroudsburg parking garage issue.

State Sen. Lisa Boscola announced Tuesday that Rendell released the frozen $2 million grant for the Stroudsburg parking deck.

The money was originally set aside for Stroudsburg by Gov. Mark S. Schweiker, but Rendell froze about $350 million in state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grants — including the Stroudsburg parking deck money — about a month ago.

Rendell's administration wants to make sure the projects that would receive the RACP grant money will have beneficial economic impacts before he agrees to let the state part with the money.

"This funding will definitely help stimulate the borough's economy and revitalize its downtown," Boscola said. "These additional parking spaces will attract new businesses to the downtown, help find tenants for existing office space and complement the borough's very successful Main Street program."

Stroudsburg Councilman Paul Shemansky said he thinks the announcement will help council members move ahead on the parking garage issue, which has been dragging on for years.

He said, "Some of us on council want to finalize the parking deck at the meeting" tonight, which will be held at 7 p.m. at the borough building.

"This is really good news," Shemansky said. "I'm really excited."

Council members voted to take out a bond for the parking deck in September 2001, but still haven't decided on plans for a deck. Some council members claim the community has contributed to the problem by arguing every plan they present.

The parking deck would be placed on a borough-owned 100-space parking lot behind the WSBG building and the First Presbyterian Church off Main Street.

Council members have not agreed on how many spaces the deck should have and what it should look like. They're also not sure how much money a deck of any size could generate for the borough annually.

The borough has to pay an annual debt service of about $220,000 for the $2.6 million bond that was taken out to build the deck in September 2001. The bond must be spent by September 2004.

Earlier this month, Council members Bernie Kennedy and Kathleen Lockwood and Borough Manager Bob Francis presented a new idea for the deck. It involves the borough forming a partnership with developer Peter Ahnert to go in on a huge parking lot with a hotel on top.

They said the borough could take out another loan — a government loan up to $6 million — and build a $5.5 million dollar deck with 325 spaces. Ahnert could then build a 120-room hotel on top.

To build a deck that large, the borough would have to obtain the WSBG property and the lot adjacent to it.



Copyright © June 18, 2003, Pocono Record
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