Lehigh County Commissioners again voted to table the Green Future Fund, despite the urging of dozens of residents to pass the bill during the board's Dec. 19, 2012 meeting.

The fund would have provided $1.06 million to park and trail projects across the county including the Martin Luther King Trail in Allentown and the Saucon Rail Trail in Lower Macungie Township.

Among those who attended the meeting to support the bill was Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, who said he was shocked the county would "turn its back to the voters."

"I understand the budget is tight, but quality of life for citizens is not frivolous or unnecessary," Pawlowski said.

Commissioners Scott Ott, Michael Schware, Lisa Scheller, Vic Mazziotti and Thomas Creighton voted to table the bill in a 5-4 vote.

The vote was met by audible unhappiness from the audience, but Mazziotti said it was not fair to be "stampeded into the project."

Mazziotti also said he did not question the merits of any of the projects and said he would have voted for any one of them, but he did not think the county was in the right financial shape to fund the projects.

Schware said he again voted to defer the bill because the administration did not provide a list of cuts, which he requested at the previous week's meeting, to offset the money that would be spent on these projects.

County Executive Bill Hansell said the cuts were not necessary because the Green Futures Fund money had already been budgeted for.

Commissioners also voted down a proposal to increase the county executive's pay from $75,000 to $127,500 beginning in January 2014.

The vote was 8-1, with only the bill's sponsor, Commissioner Daniel McCarthy voting for the increase.

"I learned how to count in first grade, so I knew I wasn't going to have enough votes to get this passed," McCarthy said. "Considering the fact we have a $365 million operation, $75,000 is not enough."

Commissioner David Jones voted against the bill, but said he would like to see the Lehigh County executive make as much as his Northampton County counterpart.