Allentown City Council on Tuesday failed to override Mayor Matt Tuerk’s veto of the city’s 2026 budget, which it had amended to strike a tax increase that Tuerk said is necessary, but council and the mayor are at odds over what happens next.

Tuerk told The Morning Call he believes the failed override vote leaves intact his original budget proposal, which included a tax increase of nearly 4%. However, some City Council members and council’s lawyer said the veto leaves the city in limbo with no budget for 2026.

The vote to override the mayor’s veto was 4-3, with council members Cynthia Mota, Ce-Ce Gerlach, Natalie Santos and Ed Zucal voting in favor, while members Daryl Hendricks, Santo Napoli and Candida Affa voted against it. Five votes were needed for the override to be successful.

City Council in November rejected Tuerk’s initial budget proposal, which would have increased taxes by 3.96% and the city’s trash fee by $140, bringing it up to $740 per household in 2026.

Council then rejected a compromise proposal from Tuerk, which would have kept intact the tax increase but reduced the trash fee increase to $90. Supporters of the compromise argued that it would alleviate the burden on the city’s poorest residents, while opponents maintained that they could not support a tax increase.

Tuerk vetoed council’s budget, which eliminated the tax increase, last week. In an email to City Council, Tuerk wrote “the amended budget does not adequately increase revenue to meet the City’s rising costs, and we cannot jeopardize our financial health by using our limited cash reserves to balance our budget.”

Reached by phone Tuesday following the vote, Tuerk, who was not at the meeting, said he was “disappointed” that council failed to reconsider his compromise proposal. However, he maintained that his original budget proposal will take effect come 2026.

“Our position as the administration is we are going to use the 2026 budget we presented to City Council because it is the only budget that meets all of the criteria of the charter, which is a balanced budget presented to City Council prior to the end of the year,” Tuerk said.

However, City Council solicitor Maria Montero had a different interpretation. In an interview following Tuesday’s meeting, Montero pointed to a 2019 Allentown voter referendum, in which voters approved a change to the city charter that prevents a mayor’s budget from going into effect by default without approval from City Council.

83% of voters in the 2019 municipal election voted in favor of a referendum that would “eliminate the potential of a Budget for the ensuing fiscal year to become effective by default.”

Montero said that the referendum means that the city will have no budget in place for 2026.

“That is a political question,” Montero said when asked how the city will move forward without a budget next year. “From a legal perspective, all I know is that there is no budget.”

This story will be updated.

https://www.mcall.com/2025/12/30/allentown-city-council-2026-budget-mayor-veto-ovverride-vote/