The chairman of the Lehigh Valley Health Board, which is pushing a new, $10 million per year Lehigh-Northampton health bureau, this week told the Morning Call that he's only asking for $500,000 per year from Lehigh County...a pittance. compared with the overall price. considering the terrific value of having a new government bureaucracy, as he sees it.
"We're asking [each county] for 5 percent of the $10 million," [Dr. David] Lyon said. "That means 95 percent is coming from other sources. Now that, to me, is a modest investment in the future of our community, and the return on that investment is going to be enormous."
[Editor's Note: If $500K comes from each county, that's $1M, or 10 percent of the total. So that means 90 percent is coming from other sources.]
However, it's about $200,000 per year more than earlier projections, and that's just the start. The cost will increase in subsequent years. In addition, that's just the amount from county taxes. The rest of the money will come from private grants, state grants, new fees and $817,964 per year from local cities.
In other words, except for the private grants, it's all taxpayer money, including the fees assessed for mandated inspections of businesses.
With citizens nationwide increasingly wary of the coming federal government takeover of the health care industry, the idea of expanding government's reach locally seems at best, poorly timed.
Northampton County Commissioners seem set to vote against the venture Monday night, July 19, at 6:30 at the health commission meeting, although the Lehigh County Commissioners' final vote tally is uncertain as of this writing.
Dean Browning, chairman of Lehigh's commissioners, said the majority of his board might still support the new health agency, but he doesn't expect to join them.
"At this point, no," he said.
Republican County Commissioners Percy Dougherty and Andy Roman have previously spoken in favor of the bi-county health bureau. See this recent episode of WFMZ's 'Business Matters'.
