conorsdad wrote:

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Scranton's "revival" is nothing but smoke and mirrors.  Our inept mayor has been giving away tax free properties to political cronies and running up the debt like a drunken sailor.

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Our Mayor can be equated to a raving lush who has been in many DWI accidents with the city car provided him, when he was under the influence, which I might add he tried to hide. His Corporation Council didn't think he had to file any accident reports yet we taxpayers got stuck footing the bill for repairs on the city car he drives because of his negligence.

The Police Chief or as I like to call Him The Police Thief ( He was involved with theft along with a family member years ago from K-Mart and the Drunk Mayor Bucci appointed this scum to head law enforcement in this city) ( If that was you or I our asses would still be in the slammer) is the mayors puppet along with the mayors other yes men and the corruption set about in this city is ignored by most residents who have all but abandoned the voting booths because they know corruption will continue in this city no matter what political party in power.

Anyone will tell you its all smoke and mirrors and Binghamton has turned into a **** town with imported sex offenders ( courtesy of the local state senator who was head of the mental health commission) imported poverty and crime from New York City and downstate ( this is the best city to get welfare right away when moving here)  and any criminal element the state has to offer. We are the dumping ground.

Then we have the out of town slumlords who are scarfing up properties left and right for pennies from the city, who is letting them turn into rat infested hovels while the housing code turns a blind eye to these welfare housing disasters. One local website actually has pictures uploaded so that viewers can see the decaying properties.

But the mayor says we are in a rebirth and revitalization...

Scranton's neighborhoods are crumbling as a result of Doherty's crony deals with the KOZs. The so-called progress in downtown is corporate welfare, and the residents have not benefitted from any well paying jobs. There are hundreds of vacant buildings for sale or lease within blocks of city hall, and people are moving out of the city as fast as they can pack up. He has lost 5 arbitrations with the unions due to his violations of contracts. It has cost us millions of dollars in legal fees and awards. He grasped at straws when he took credit for major construction projects that were programmed during Connors' administration like Providence Square, E. Mountain, and Market St. bridge. During the last flood, he pulled out the Red Cross before people had hot water or electricity. He has reduced the number of police personnel, and has refused to spend money on the upkeep of cop cars that they broke down on the way to a bank robbery, and two cruisers had to be towed to a traffic incident which blocked the expressway to be put in place to divert traffic.

Doherty's 204 million dollar debt has gotten us nothing but a facade. One that he counted on deceiving the voters to gain another term. From there he planned to move up to Harrisburg, and leave us all buried for decades to pay his bills.

He's not going to make it this time. He truly believes that we haven't been paying attention. He has sorely underestimated the intelligence of the residents of this city. The people have become too well informed, too disgruntled, and too organized. They will show up in vast numbers on Nov 8th to vote out this corrupt thief we currently identify as mayor.

The KOZs that come to our city are not tax paying entities and have not created a significant number of well paying jobs to generate any other type of revenue we might enjoy from their presence.

Why won't other businesses relocate here? Simply because their employees are most likely not interested in living in a city that has a 3.4% wage tax, and they don't want to reside in neighborhoods that are crumbling and neglected, and we are experiencing an increase in gang activity that cannot be controlled by our reduced police staff.

The fundamental element of economic progress is through paying employees competitive wages relating to other parts of the state, which wages get funneled into the local economy in numerous ways, both directly and indirectly. Money spent by corporations alone in their capital investments do not sustain economic growth, and is not a secure way of maintaining economic progress, because those corporations can leave at any time, and often do. Just look at TMG Health, which had a tax free umbrella in the Enterprise Zone downtown, and even they don't want to stay. They are relocating to Dunmore with a very substantial grant from the state, to the tune of $4 million dollars.

What would make them want to move from such tax abatement?

First of all the KOZ is a state program.

Keystone Opportunity Zones are defined-parcel- specific areas with greatly reduced or no tax burden for property owners, residents and businesses. KOZ's have been designated by local communities and approved by the state - a true partnership between each community and region among state and local taxing bodies, school districts, economic development agencies and community-based organizations.

Over 23,000 new jobs have been created and over 20,000 jobs were retained, with over 43,000 jobs in the zone since the initial KOZ program began in 1999, and the number is growing rapidly. We invite you to read some of the individual Success Stories that have resulted from the program.

Recognizing the success of the KOZ program, Pennsylvania provided communities one more opportunity to take advantage of what Business Facilities magazine calls the Number 1 Economic Development Strategy in the nation, by creating additional Keystone Opportunity Zones.

Following are some of the specifics behind the Keystone Opportunity Zones:

Selection Criteria
To be considered as a Keystone Opportunity Zone, a site must have:

• Displayed through a vision/strategy statement how this property through targeted growth could impact the aforementioned positively;
  
• Displayed evidence of adverse economic and socioeconomic conditions within the proposed zone such as high poverty rates, high unemployment rates, percentage of abandoned or underutilized property, and/or population loss;
  
• Passed binding resolutions or ordinances forgoing certain taxes; this included school districts, county and municipal governments.
  
• Public and private commitment of resources;
  
• Linkages to regional community and economic development activities including Team Pennsylvania and initiatives under the DCED's Center for Community Building;
  
• A written plan discussing the implementation of quality school improvements and local crime reduction measures
  
• And a demonstrated cooperation from surrounding municipalities.

Second, don't misrepresent the facts. There is no gang activity in Scranton . Scranton is one of the safiest cities for its size.

Stewey wrote:

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tell me who is coming to Scranton without KOZs?

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Tell me...who will stay in or come to Scranton without a tax break and increased public safety?

All of the planters, water slides, Christmas lights, KOZ's, and "restored" parks in the world are not worth crap if you're overtaxed and unsafe.  The King says we can't afford beat cops and bike cops?  Well, obviously, he feels we can afford $48,000 worth of billboards with his face on them, $16,000 in flowers sent to who knows who, and millions in additional salaries to unqualified political cronies at city hall.

In the words of The King's buddy Bend-over Bob Mellow - "get a life."