Commissioners Accept LERTA Agreements
Commissioners Jason Renshaw and Pat Fabian formally adopted the LERTA ordinances in Bethel and Manor Townships last week. Commissioner George Skamai was not present for the vote.
by Jonathan Weaver
Last week, County Commissioners formally recognized and adopted tax abatements for residents in a pair of local municipalities.
Commissioner Chair Pat Fabian and Vice-Chair Jason Renshaw both agreed and adopted Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) designations in Manor Township and Bethel Township.
Earlier in the week, the tax abatements – as well as pending resolutions for North Buffalo and East Franklin Township – were also approved 7-1.
Planning and Development Executive Director Rich Palilla said County Solicitor Chase McClister prepared the ordinances and they reflect each municipality’s plan moving forward.
“It’s been the County’s practice to adopt ordinances for tax abatements upon the request from those municipalities,” Palilla said. “Both Bethel and Manor Township have declared the entire municipality as the eligible area. Both townships have adopted a 10-year tax abatement schedule – 100 percent in Year One and then declining by 10 percent in subsequent years.”
School Superintendent Chris DeVivo had recommended the resolutions be honored after meeting with commissioners earlier this month.
“As a result of that meeting, we came out and really believe that we need to honor the requests made by the municipalities moving forward,” DeVivo said earlier this month. “We don’t believe there’s any harm in offering the LERTA programs in each of those municipalities.
“We need to work hand-in-hand in an effort to try to spur some kind of development –residential, commercial, industrial, whatever it might be – in an effort to expand the tax base in this county. Any program that can give that a boost, I think we should be supportive of.”
Board Directors Stan Berdell, Paul Lobby and Rick Mulroy, along with DeVivo and Business Manager Sam Kirk, met with County Commissioners March 4 to discuss the pending agreements.
Berdell said he was “encouraged” at the meeting with the turnout from many different departments.
In addition to commissioners meeting with school officials, Commissioner Fabian said the trio of commissioners and administration directors also met with County Tax Claim Director Jeanne Englert, Planning and Development Executive Director Rich Palilla and County Assessment Board Member Dan Burk.
After Superintendent DeVivo’s recommendation, Commissioner Fabian said the trio of commissioners will consider each tax abatement ordinance as they are presented.
“We agreed that as individual municipalities (pass resolutions), whether they be industrial, commercial or residential, the school district and the County would follow suit,” Fabian said. “As (individual municipality agreements) come through, we will adopt those as well.”
Last week, Fabian added that the discussion included “healthy dialogue” and that all officials were “on the same page.”
Local News, Manor Township | jweaver March 22, 2016
By jorn jensen, March 22, 2016 @ 9:05 AM
Remember, folks, LERTA is an admission that property taxes are wrong, therefore, we’ll give you a break on them for a while as we let the rest of the taxpayers pay for your temporary tax break.
This is exactly why LERTA hasn’t worked well for Armstrong County. It is a nice idea with very limited success.
The solution is property tax elimination via HB/SB76. Push your legislators to support HB/SB76.