One of the annual rites of spring is baseball. Though it’s still chilly outside, kids all over the Lehigh Valley have left the batting cages housed in old warehouses for the diamonds that dot parks all over the Lehigh Valley. But April 6 was a bad night in Mudville for the Northampton County Nine. Council President John Cusick struck out in a seemingly Quixotic quest to shackle Northampton County residents with a new tax in the form of a $5 vehicle registration fee that would make its way from the state to county coffers.

In 2013, the state legislature enacted a massive gas tax increase, giving the Keystone State the highest gas taxes in the nation. They also authorized counties to impose a $5 “local use fee” on vehicle registrations, so long as the money is used for transportation. So far, 14 counties have done so.

“This is a user fee,” argued Cusick, adding that roads and bridges have been a core government function since the days of the Roman Empire. “The question is how to we pay for this need,” he said. “One option is real estate taxes. The other is this user fee.” It would generate $1.2 million every year.

But last summer, Cusick’s user fee failed in a 5 to 3 vote.

“Strike one!” the umpire said.

Undaunted, Cusick resurrected the registration hike in December. Executive John Brown had embarked on an aggressive bridge repair plan. But this time, Northampton County Council tabled this new tax without discussion.

Cusik signaled to the pitcher, and once more the dun sphere flew;

But Cusick still ignored it and the umpire said, “Strike two!”

The mighty Cusick took his third swing on April 6. He admitted the fee is unpopular. But PennDoT has promised to pay up to $2 million to any county with a bridge bundling program that imposes this registration hike. He noted the county is on the hook for $4 million this and next year for the bridge project. A registration hike would bring in $1.2 million for the county, and possibly an additional $2 million from the state. ed.

“I don’t like this fee, but not only are you rejecting the fee, you are rejecting a potential $2 million in matching funds,” he said.

And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,

And now the air is shattered by the force of Cusick’s blow.

Strike three.

The measure failed in a 7 to 2 vote,with only Cusick and Ken Kraft voting to support it. Prior to the vote, Hayden Phillips and Ken Kraft withdrew as sponsors. Cusick and Kraft had to name themselves as sponsors because the Home Rule Charter requires two sponsors.

“I really don’t like the way the state or federal government tries to bribe you into doing what you don’t want to do,” observed Phillips. Noting that the state’s rainy day fund is empty, he ridiculed the state for promising money it doesn’t have.

Phillips later admitted that he borrowed his bribery analogy from Peg Ferraro.

Three strikes in baseball and you’re out. But not in government. Cusick may bring this matter up again at the end of the year, when the budget picture for 2018 becomes clearer.