Latest News:

Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham Announces Grant Awards from Lehigh County’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund

Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham Kicks off Courthouse Renovation and Expansion Project

Cunningham: Taxes To Remain Unchanged Through 2011

Lehigh County Awards Grant to City of Bethlehem – May 1, 2007

Lehigh County Awards Grant to Borough of Catasauqua – April 30, 2007

Lehigh County Awards Grant to City of Allentown – April 24, 2007

Lehigh County Awards Grants to Municipalities – April 23, 2007

Military tax rebate remarks to LVMAC – April 18, 2007

Lehigh County Executive to Propose Tax Relief Plan for Active Duty Military in Speech Wednesday (4/18) to Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council - April 18, 2007

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• February 22, 2005 - Seventeen warehouses were consolidated
• November 29, 2004 - DGS actually doubled property ins. coverage
• October 19, 2004 - One of his first steps
• October 20, 2003 - The sale of the Bensalem Youth Center

As secretary of the Department of General Services since February 2003, Cunningham lead the Administration’s effort to incorporate cutting-edge private sector management practices into the state’s business operations, overhauling the purchasing operations and eliminating more than $120 million in unnecessary spending while creating greater opportunities for small disadvantaged businesses.

As Secretary of DGS, Don was also responsible for the management of more than 11,000 state-owned buildings, including the State Capitol, as well as 1,400 Commonwealth leases. He oversaw the design and construction of the state’s non-highway capital construction projects, the state’s minority and women-owned business contracting program, the Capitol Police Department, the Bureau of Commonwealth Media Services and served as the state’s real estate agent and insurance broker.

Under Cunningham’s leadership, DGS doubled the Commonwealth’s property insurance coverage while slashing premiums nearly in half, saving more than $4 million a year.

In the area of real estate, Don led the initiatives to save Pennsylvania’s taxpayers money by competitively selling off unneeded surplus state property and putting property back on the tax rolls, creating community and economic development in communities across Pennsylvania. Under Cunningham, the Rendell Administration launched an aggressive Downtown Location plan to put state employees to work in small town and urban core downtowns. Once of those projects will bring 250 PennDOT employees to Hamilton Street in Downtown Allentown. The sale of former state land in Buck County generated the Commonwealth’s single largest land sale price, bringing more than $10 million to Pennsylvania taxpayers.

Cunningham also led the effort to more aggressively help local governments and school districts to realize purchasing savings by “piggyback” buying from state contracts on everything from vehicles to personal computers. Don’s business consolidation efforts also eliminated the redundancy of state warehouse facilities in the Harrisburg area, reducing the number of warehouses and supply centers from 17 to 4 and saving $4 million a year.

While in state government as Secretary of DGS, Cunningham served on the State Public School Building Authority and Pennsylvania Higher Educational Facilities Authority, as well as the Board of PENNVEST, the Capitol Preservation Committee, the Governor’s Homeland Security Advisory Council and the Agricultural Land Preservation Interagency Committee.