Don Cunningham

Lehigh County Executive

State of the County Address
February 17, 2010

This is the time of the year when I’m supposed to give you some insight into our
county; a window into our condition; a look ahead, a look behind.
I am honored that you all have come to listen to me. In these times, there is little
faith in the words – or the actions – of those we elect. But, you have come – and even if it
was just for the free lunch – I’m grateful that your interest in – or, at least, your exposure
to -- civic affairs will extend beyond the opening of your tax bill.
For 15 years, I’ve served in elected or appointed office in our county, our state or
my home city of Bethlehem. In college and graduate school I studied government and
politics. I was a newspaper reporter early in my career covering local and county
governments. This is my 11th state of the county or the city address. And, I’ve watched
others as a city councilman and a cabinet secretary as part of those governments.
I have not seen a time when people were more frustrated with government – both
the private citizen and those who are elected or selected to serve. And we all realize why.
The recession has been longer than is comfortable. There are fewer jobs available than
we would like. Some of our institutions have let us down -- from the banks and brokerage
firms to the credit card companies to the Congress. Simply put, everything is a lot
tougher when you have less money.
In my view, an Age of Discontent appears to have emerged. Anger and frustration
have to go somewhere – and government often does a good job of painting a big bull’s
eye on itself. The root cause, however, of discontent is created by the decline of wealth
for Americans. Wages have grown very little or been cut. Health care either costs more or
is unattainable. Real estate values are less than what they were five years ago – and so are
401ks. College costs more and so does gasoline. Credit card interest runs in the double
digits but a standard savings account earns less than one percent.
Simply put, most Americans have less money and net value than they did five
years ago.As difficult as this is, we all need to understand that economies have cycles.
We’ve had recessions before, even Depressions. The country has seen worse times and
returned stronger.
But today’s economic pain is fueled by 24 hour, seven day a week news cycles
flaming with television pundits and analysts on 300 channels. Gertrude Stein once wrote
“Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.”
We tend to whip ourselves into a collective frenzy, whether it’s over an impending
snowstorm or an economic downturn. There is little time anymore for perspective, for
depth of thought, for contemplation. Each day provides new news, more instant reaction
and opinion; more consumption and less digestion. We can only imagine how the
outcomes of World War II or the Civil War may have differed if they happened in
today’s all-news, all-the-time climate.
We have had it so good for so long that there is little tolerance for sacrifice
anymore in our democracy -- little understanding that we can’t have everything when we
want it, how we want it. I believe this is the context in which we meet today. There are
real problems for all of us – individuals, families, companies and governments -- because

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we have less money. That means some leisure needs to be replaced with sacrifice, tough
decisions. And, the reality is that we Americans look to government for the answers, for
the solutions – whether we like to admit it or not. Whether we are conservatives or
liberals, Republicans or Democrats, by what we expect government to do - or not to do -
we expect government to solve the problem, either by being active or inactive. We expect
rapid response when something happens to us, to our neighborhood, to our company to
our business sector, to our special interest. Most among us, however, are less concerned
when it doesn’t affect us, when it’s someone else’s problem. Some among us are all too
willing to solve someone else’s problems with someone else’s money.
The very tradition of these “state of the government” addresses reflects the
premium we place upon our governments in our great multi-layered democracy, which
Abraham Lincoln called “the last best hope of earth.” And, God knows, at least here in
Pennsylvania, we have a lot of governments.
The state of Lehigh County is intertwined with the state of our nation, our region
and each and every one of our lives. In most measures, Lehigh County is doing better
than most other counties in our state. I’m sure there are some counties doing better. The
reality, however, is that the challenges we face are more national in creation; the affects
of this recession, for the most part, have been distributed equally.
I’ve been elected again to run the government of Lehigh County. This is a $412
million business with about 2,200 full-time employees. I have lots of great help – and we
have three full branches of government under our Home Rule Charter – an executive, a
legislative and a judicial, along with several elected row officers. I get to give this
address on behalf of all – but as they usually disclaim in the forward of a book: any errors
of opinion or fact are mine and mine alone.
We run nursing homes for the elderly among us that can’t afford private care. We
run correctional institutions and jails to punish and to rehabilitate those among us who’ve
broken with the conventions of our society. We oversee the delivery of a wide-range of
primarily state and federal government funded welfare services to care for the elderly,
treat the mentally ill and mentally debilitated, to save kids from the parents who are
supposed to love and nurture them, to find families for adoption, to save people from
their own addictions to alcohol and drugs. We run an extensive court and domestic
relations operation to adjudicate, to prosecute and to protect people in both civil and
criminal situations. Our judges and masters resolve disputes and administer justice to
those who have broken the law and those who’ve been victimized by law-breakers. We
provide parks and ball fields and nature trails for recreation and nature preserves and
protected farmland to ensure that our children’s children will experience some of the
same county as us. We have built a baseball stadium, a bicycle racing veledrome and a
zoo for the entertainment and recreation or our residents and visitors. And, we help to
develop our economy, work to create jobs, maintain our infrastructure and improve the
safety and quality of our downtowns and neighborhoods to provide more opportunity and
a better quality of life.
We have done good things in the management of these operations. And, as the
farmer says, we have made hay while the sun was shining the last four years. We have
also gone 2 ½ years without seeing an increase in new tax revenue in almost every
category – earned income tax, real estate transfer tax, business privilege tax. No new
money makes things a bit more challenging. Much was made during last year’s election

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of us needing to budget $14.2 million from out Tax Relief Fund to balance this year’s
budget. But, today, let me tell you some new 2010 news that has yet to be reported.
Once again, Moodys Investors Services has given Lehigh County one of its
highest bond ratings, calling the county financially stable and a good credit risk for
investors. The rating agency wrote that the county’s “historically strong financial position
is expected to remain sound despite (revenue) declines.” What this means for us is that
several weeks ago we saved about $1 million when we went out to the market to
refinance some old debt.
As we close out the books on our actual spending for 2009, once again, we’ve
beaten our budget and spending forecasts. Our 2009 budget called for using $5.5 million
of our Tax Relief Fund, which set off a hailstorm of political upheaval.
As the final reports come in, it’s clear that we will use none of it. We have beaten our
budget by that much and, most likely, more when the final numbers come in. This is
consistent with every budget we have delivered the last four years. That comes from
budgeting and managing in a conservative manner, expecting the worst and working your
tail off to try and do better. The credit goes to Tom Muller and Brian Kahler and all of
our directors, managers, employees and unions. That comes from having the smallest
county workforce in more than 20 years and holding average annual operating spending
to a growth of less than 3 percent.
This year’s budget retains a $20 million Reserve Fund that is unbudgeted and will
be untouched. And, once again, our tax rate remains unchanged for the fifth consecutive
year.
And while it is imperative that our economic development team works to help
foster growth and development and make job creation our primary focus, we also need to
pour over every corner of our county operation to see where we can find more savings.
This year, all is on the table for review. We will do whatever is necessary and prudent to
maintain financial stability and accountability in county operations. That may mean
ending some things we would like to do and can do in good times but fall victim to the
sacrifices that tougher economic times entail. We can’t spend more than our residents can
afford. As Peter Drucker put so ably, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that
which should not be done at all.” That’s why during my Oath of Office Address in
January I solicited ideas from the community for saving money and growing the
economy. We received several ideas including offering early retirement packages – I
don’t think you’d be surprised if I told you a county employee submitted that one – to
conducting energy audits of our buildings, which we’re in the process of doing. We will
be advancing many ideas this year to our Board of Commissioners as we prepare for our
2011 budget, which we expect to be our toughest budget challenge in the last five years.
Appealing to the public for ideas is not just about sharing ownership of our county
and future, but trying to shake things up a bit and find new ways of doing business and
utilizing the best ideas, whether they from Republicans or Democrats, from within the
government or the private sector. Not all of these ideas need to be big. As the Dalai Lama
said, “If you think small things don’t matter, try spending the night in a room with a
mosquito.”
Our story is no different than that of every county, city and municipality
throughout the Commonwealth or nation. Government at every level must figure out

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how to operate more efficiently with less and provide core services to a larger populace
with greater needs. And we must do it while respecting the interests and wallets of all.
These times call for cooperation, not competition; creativity, not status quo.
The Regional Crime Date Center is a perfect example of how we can reach across
geographic borders with an eye on consolidating services to save taxpayers money. The
Center would be the first of its kind in Pennsylvania. Any incident report or information
of criminal activity will flow from various police departments into one central repository
where crime analysts will help local police departments identify patterns, solve crime and
take criminals off the streets. This would come on the heels of our Central Booking
Facility, opened last year at the behest of Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin.
The facility processes all bookings in Lehigh County at no cost to municipalities and
allows police officers to get back on the street quickly instead of spending hours mired in
paperwork.
Taking a regional approach to fighting crime makes sense because criminals don’t
respect municipal or county boundaries. It is my core belief that the most important role
of any government is to provide safety and security for its people -- whether it be national
defense at the federal level, homeland security at the state level or the reduction of crime
at the local level. I will continue to pursue that as a fundamental and core role of county
government. As some of you may have read in the local newspaper, the crime rate is
down in the Lehigh Valley. I’d like to think that our public safety initiatives have helped.
Our Safe Streets program has allocated $1 million over three years to Lehigh County
municipalities to hire 10 additional police officers in six communities. We initiated the
first county-wide Citizens’ Police Academy and today more than 300 residents have
taken the eight-week course, strengthening ties between the community and police, and
give residents a sense of control and peace of mind in protecting their families and
neighbors. Our new 9-1-1 dispatch center and emergency training facilities have
improved our response and emergency preparedness functions across the entire county. A
I believe that now is the time for all of us in the Lehigh Valley to recommit to
regional cooperation and improve our regional institutions. In tough financial times, it’s
more imperative to find economies and share costs. We need a better and more
productive Lehigh Valley Airport. We need a Lehigh Valley Economic Development
Corporation that can market our region to help create jobs and get the wheels of growth
churning quicker again. We need a Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce that
can afford to stay committed to improving our cities and downtowns, along with our
malls and suburban office parks. We need both of our counties looking for ways to do
things together to save money and share resources. I applaud Dean Browning and Ron
Angle, the chairman of our respective county legislative bodies, for forming an alliance
and looking for ways to do things together. They will have my full support.
We have seen our Congress of Governments – the council of all 25 of our Lehigh County
governments, suburban and rural townships, cities and boroughs – get even stronger and
bond together as those local leaders look for regional solutions and the efficiencies of
doing things across municipal borders. I hope the day can come that we have a Lehigh
Valley-wide Congress of Local Governments.
We all want to see a better and stronger Lehigh Valley; a return to prosperity for
the individuals, the companies and the governments: both counties, all 60 plus
municipalities and 20 some school districts. In that pursuit, we are united. No matter our

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political ideology, religious beliefs, gender, race or culture, we all want peace of mind
that our families are secure, our jobs are stable and we are safe in our homes. We want
our savings protected and a fair wage for our hard work. We want peace in our
neighborhoods, safe places for our children to play, vibrant downtown communities,
bridges, roads and buildings that don’t crumble and a solvent government that upholds a
democracy we love and cherish.
We want a future built on decency and strength not promises or political rhetoric.
It will not be easy. That’s one thing I can promise. I can also tell you that there is no
simple solution and no one person has all the answers. As Dickens wrote, “It was the
best of times, it was the worst of times.” The interesting thing regarding that Dickens
passage is what comes after that famous opening line. He goes on to write, “It was the
age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch
of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring
of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before
us….”
We live in the greatest democracy in the history of the world. We have managed
to advance free government of and by the people and free markets for longer and in a
more prosperous way than any other country in the history of mankind. We’ve done this
by shedding the idea of nobility and drawing from the sons and daughters of all to lead
us. Our government is us. It reflects our attitudes, our desires, our culture, our strengths,
our weaknesses; our ability to rise above and do great things and our ability to fail and
flounder and fall to the ground. From a cynical perspective, we can turn to the great Walt
Kelly line, “We have met the enemy and it is us.” Across our nation, at all levels of
government, we want great services and low taxes. We want our issues addressed but we
want government to be small. We tend to elect leaders who tell us what we want to hear.
How good we are. That we can have it all and we won’t have to pay for it. Bertrand
Russell wrote that, “to be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of
happiness.”
Generations before us understood the meaning of sacrifice, of differed
gratification. Our forbearers were not afraid to do what was hard, and what was needed to
sustain the dream of a better life for them and their children. My family has been in this
county for five generations and I believe this region, this Valley, has always represented
the best of the American spirit. We are a people unafraid to roll up our sleeves, to pour
hot steel, swing an I-beam or quarry slate from rugged hills. A people willing to fight for
family and home. After the fall of Fort Sumter during the Civil War, President Abraham
Lincoln called on 16 regiments across the state of Pennsylvania to defend the National
Capital in Washington, D.C. Members of the Allentown Militia in Lehigh County were
among the first to arrive. That is our legacy. Today, we may be teachers, construction
workers, small business owners, nurses, waiters, doctors, lawyers, accountants and
salespeople but we are the same.
Times may be a little difficult but a new day will come. The hardships will pass.
We will get through this together -- because that is what we do -- because we are
unwilling to consider – for even a moment – that we will fail. Let us seize this moment
and move forward. Together.