Taxpayers Should Not Support Further Berks County Mismanagement

April 25, 2025

HARRISBURG - Rep. David Maloney (R-Berks) today declined to support a $6.3 million request of additional taxpayer money Berks County officials say is now needed to renovate the Youth Detention Center, saying county officials should have planned and budgeted for this important public safety project quite some time ago.

The two request letters – for a total of $19 million in extra taxpayer cash for this proposal – can be read here and here.
Maloney’s response follows: 

“The fact that Berks County needs space to keep criminals away from our citizens and out of our communities is not a new issue. 
“The fiscal mismanagement of taxpayer dollars by the Berks County Commissioners is not new either.

“Violent crime has risen steadily in our cities across the nation over the past several years. The crime is even more pronounced in sanctuary cities such as Reading where national public safety groups have asked Berks County Commissioners chairman Christian Leinbach to take corrective action. 

“The county commissioners two years ago even closed the county’s detention center, which was meant specifically to house illegal aliens!

“All of this is to say, Berks County leaders have been well aware of the need for more detention space for quite some time, but instead of saving up funds for the need, our county commissioners have been busy amassing a multimillion-dollar pile of debt purchasing private businesses.

“The Reading Airport is a perfect example: Commissioners borrowed $15.8 million to buy the Reading Jet Center and Millennium Aviation. When the bonds and interest are finally paid off in 2044, it will have cost taxpayers over $28.2 million for the county commissioners to play airport manager while dangerous criminals run free for lack of detention space.

“With this current display of mismanagement and disregard for taxpayer dollars, I cannot support this request at this time.”



Representative David Maloney
130th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Charles Lardner
717.260.6161
clardner@pahousegop.com
RepMaloney.com