As fall begins its decent into winter, budgets for counties, cities, borough and townships are being unveiled across the Lehigh Valley. On Monday night Bethlehem Township’s Board of Commissioners agreed to advertise the 2013 budget, a document that calls for no tax increase, will keep the millage rate at 5.99 percent and author no increases in sewer rates for township residents.

What’s not to like?

By a 5-0 vote supervisor agreed and the document will now be put up for public inspection, slated for approval at the December 17th meeting. If approved it will be the fourth consecutive year with no budget increase.

In other news, commissioners did not have a chance to act for the second consecutive meeting on the Freemansburg Square Land Development proposal, as Township Manager Howard Kutzler said the “language of the proposal” is still being edited and should be complete for the board’s next meeting in early in December. The project, the brainchild of Dr. Atul Amin, would develop a commercial park highlighted by a 10-story hotel on Freemansburg Avenue at Emrick Boulevard, nearby to Route 33. Should the project garner approval, Amin’s attention would to securing a hotel franchise agreement for the structure that will be the project’s anchor that includes a 10-story parking garage, three six-story retail buildings, two five-story office buildings and a three-story bank and office building on just under nine acres of land.