Lehigh County Voters To Have Say in Public-Private Debt Issues

From now on, any debt issue for a project involving both Lehigh County government and private interests will require voter approval before it can move ahead.

That's because county voters by landslide totals Tuesday approved a ballot question requiring voter approval for future debt issues.

With 87 percent of the votes counted, the ballot question was approved 24,104 to 8,360. That's 74 percent to 26 percent. Those totals were posted on WFMZ-TV's website.

All vote totals are unofficial.

Debt issues that would now require voter approval would involve projects like Coca-Cola Park, home of baseball's IronPigs, or a facility like a shopping center.

Voter approval would not cover financing for traditional government projects such as bridge repair and other infrastructure improvements. Those would continue to be decided by elected officials.

County commissioner Tom Creighton, one of the prime backers of the ballot question, said in a previous Patch story that he knew of no organized opposition to the measure. But he admitted some voters might simply oppose it.

"It's possible people will say we don't want any control -- let politicians handle it," the Republican from Lynn Township said.

It turns out those kind of voters were in short supply Tuesday.

Creighton, meanwhile, was running for re-election to his District 1 commissioners seat. He was winning, according to WFMZ's website. With 97 percent of the votes in, Creighton had 5,519 (57 percent) to 4,190 (43 percent) for Democrat Bill Leiner Jr. of Coplay.

In a previous Patch story, Creighton credited former commissioner Dean Browning with being the "author" of the ballot question.

Creighton said in the story that state law had to be changed before Tuesday's question could be placed on the ballot. And the change in law was needed because Lehigh County is one of six home-rule counties in the state (Northampton is another one).

Creighton said in the story that Lehigh is the only home-rule county he knows of to so far place a ballot question that would give voters more of a say on debt issues.

The question, he said in the story, puts Lehigh County "at a new frontier" when it comes to voters having more of a say.