Palmer Township may Join Lawsuit Against Allentown

The will decide at its next meeting whether to join other municipalities in a lawsuit against earned income taxes going to .

Supervisors Chairman David Colver and Township Manager Christopher Christman both said Friday that the topic will be among those discussed at the supervisors' April 24 meeting.

"I would imagine so," Colver said. "More municipalities are joining the lawsuit and different developers have been meeting about the arena tax. We'll discuss what's going on and then we'll see what happens."

Christman filed Right to Know requests with the City of Allentown and state Department of Revenue to find out how much money Palmer Township might stand to lose in terms of residents' earned income taxes going for the arena tax.

Christman said Allentown denied his Right to Know request, with Colver stating the city said it could not provide the information in the form that it was requested.

Christman said another request came back from the state, who said it couldn't release the information to the public.

"There was a whole lot of jargon that told me no," Christman said.

Lower Saucon, Hanover and Bethlehem townships have filed a lawsuit challenging a special state law allowing Allentown to retain earned income taxes of employees who work within the city's Neighborhood Improvement Zone.

The zone will help Allentown build a hockey arena and redevelop other parts of its downtown and waterfront with an estimated $550,000 in earned income taxes coming from surrounding municipalities and school districts.

Under ordinary circumstances, earned income taxes paid in the municipality where people work are forwarded to their home municipalities, where they are typically shared between the local government and school district.

"I think it's just very disappointing," Christman said. "If the information exists, Allentown should have shared it."

With no tax information forthcoming, Palmer officials will have to make a decision.

The lawsuit filed by Hanover Township stipulates that municipalities can join within 30 days of the original filing on March 27.

Christman said that means the deadline is April 27.

"The April 24 meeting is our last public opportunity to address this," he said. "We could decide to hold a special meeting, but probably couldn't pull that off in three days before the deadline."