Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure presented his State of Northampton County remarks May 24 to a packed ballroom at the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.

McClure highlighted accomplishments with the budget, the pension fund, state of median income for residents and farmland preservation. He linked pollution of the Lehigh River and poor air quality with the transportation or logistics companies, particularly warehouses.

He touted work to reduce deaths by fentanyl poisoning, urged more broadband and affordable housing and praised local health bureaus and area hospitals for meeting pandemic challenges.

McClure criticized the over-development of warehouses, while praising warehouse workers, and made it clear that he would not support tax incentives for warehouses. “Now, let’s be clear about something. Warehouses aren’t inherently evil. There isn’t something inherently bad about them. When I was a kid, my dad [said] he wanted me to understand that, ‘All people’s work has value.’”

“Their jobs are valuable, and they are valuable, and I would never denigrate the work that those folks do. I don’t want any of those to go away. Those folks have good jobs. They like their jobs. And there are a ton of logistics companies right here in Northampton County; FedEx, UPS, Amazon. The largest logistics companies in the world. I wish a couple of these would unionize, but that’s a TED Talk for another day.”

“So. we don’t want them to go away either. They pay taxes. They employ people. But we’re done. We don’t want any more warehouses. And we don’t want to incentivize them with tax breaks.”

He also announced support for passenger rail service to New York City and Philadelphia while preemptively denouncing the high estimates of re-establishing rail service as scare tactics. “Passenger rail [is] currently being studied again. I expect we will be told it will cost millions of dollars to get passenger rail to New York and Philadelphia for that matter. That should no longer be the scare tactic to keep us from pursuing passenger rail to New York City. If we are going to increase our middle class, being connected to the financial centers of the known universe is very important to us.”

McClure praised some of his staff, including Deputy Director of Human Services Robyn Barbosa, to whom McClure gave a special commendation for saving homes in Northampton County during the COVID-19 pandemic.

McClure touted efforts at fiscal responsibility, noting the county has passed four balanced budgets without tax increases while building retirement funds up to 90 percent funded. He also highlighted the median income of Northampton County residents. “What is the state of Northampton County? Out of our 67 counties we are 13th in population and yet we’re ninth in median income. We are fifth in the entire state of Pennsylvania in family household median income.

“We will have invested $25 million in the preservation of farmland and open space and environmentally sensitive land. During my time in office we have preserved over 3,000 acres of land and created three new county parks totaling over 300 acres.”

McClure emphasized his commitment to “green,” and drew parallels between having a green economy and financial prosperity.

McClure later gave credit to the local health bureaus for helping the administration’s accomplishments during the pandemic.

“One of the reasons we came through the pandemic as well as we did was because of the Allentown and Bethlehem health bureaus. So, we met this health crises as best we could by working together [with] testing [and] vaccinations.”

“We put $25 million in the hands of small businesses throughout the pandemic so they could survive, and survive they did. The other reason we did that is so that on the other end of the pandemic they would thrive, and they did. They’re thriving mightily.”

McClure praised the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce Vice President Jessica O’Donnell-Gower for helping the county administer COVID relief money to area small businesses.

He praised the foresight of past area leaders in developing Commerce Way on the site of former Bethlehem Steel brownfields.

McClure highlighted Martin Guitar’s warehouse off Route 33 as the type of business he would like to retain in the county.

“That warehouse allows [Martin Guitar] to continue to manufacture its products here and employ people here. This is not just a warehouse. It stores the wood that they source globally, including from South America. It is a building with a temperature-controlled environment [needed for] the process of crafting guitars. Without this building here with these capabilities, we might lose an iconic manufacturer. That’s the kind of businesses we want to retain.”

The County Executive then turned his attention to his goal of expanding the middle class. Two of the ways he envisions doing this are through the expansion of broadband for children and by increasing affordable or workers’ housing.