Lehigh County voters will get to decide if they would like to make the final approval before the county incurs certain kinds of debt.

At its April 24 meeting, the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners approved a referendum that will ask county voters this November if they would like the final say before the county issues debt to support private sector activities, such as building a baseball stadium.

Currently the commissioners can ask for voter advisory before the county incurs debt, but it is not required. If the referendum passes in November, voter approval would be mandatory any time the county plans to create debt for private sector activities.

Votes on such projects would be held during general elections due to high voter turnout.

Commissioner Vic Mazziotti expressed concern asking for voter approval in general elections could lead to long intervals between when a bill is proposed and then voted on.

"If an issue came up in December it couldn't be voted on until the following November," Mazziotti said. "That's 11 months. That seems like a long time to go to vote for an issue that may be of interest to the community."

Commissioner Michael Schware said the long wait could actually be a good thing. "I would hope anything of this magnitude that would require this kind of financing would not be rushed and we can deliberate and the public can have all the information," Schware said. "I would personally like to see something come up in December and then have to wait until November just to get all the details and get as much public input out there as we can get."

The bill was originally proposed in 2011 and was sponsored by Commissioner Thomas Creighton and then-Commissioners Dean Browning and Andy Roman. The bill was then reintroduced December 2012 by Creighton.

Commissioner Scott Ott applauded his fellow commissioners for the careful approach they took to this bill.

"It's not a trifling thing to change your constitution or ask for voters to change your constitution," Ott said. "There were a lot of issues that had to be thought through in the process and I appreciate Commissioner Creighton's patience. His eagerness was well known to us, but he remained gracious throughout the entire process."

The next commissioner meeting will be held May 8 in the public hearing room of the Lehigh County Government Center in Allentown.