Effort focuses on at-risk towns; state bill targets dwindling tax bases

By Courtney Anderson
Herald Staff Writer

SHARON November 15, 2008 09:16 pm

— A bill being kicked around in the state Legislature could help cash-strapped municipalities with a high percentage of tax-exempt property make up for dwindling tax bases.
The Tax-exempt Property Municipal Assistance Act would give money from the $240 million collected each year through the Johnstown Flood Tax on liquor sales to municipalities where 17 percent or more of the properties are tax-exempt.
Sharon Mayor Bob Lucas brought up the bill at a council meeting Thursday.
Lucas said that about 30 percent of the assessed property in Sharon is tax-exempt, including half a dozen school buildings, Sharon Regional Health System and the Shenango Campus of Pennsylvania State University.
This past spring, Lucas said, he testified in Pittsburgh about how the bill would help the town.
It could also help places like Farrell, where about 28 percent of property is tax-exempt, and Greenville.
About 40 percent of the borough’s properties are non-taxable, Greenville Mayor Richard H. Miller said. Those lands are valued at $22 million, Miller said, and Thiel College makes up almost half of that dollar amount.
State Rep. Mark Longietti, Hermitage, D-7th District, was a co-sponsor of the bill, which was introduced by Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Northampton.
“I think it’s a bill that would help a lot of older cities that have regional assets like hospitals and places like Penn State Shenango and other nonprofits,” Longietti said. “It would help them with the tax burden they bear.”
State Rep. Michele Brooks, Jamestown, R-17th District, is also a co-sponsor of the bill. She said it would help small communities whose budgets are already “stretched to the maximum.”
Longietti said the bill will likely be reintroduced next year, but one of the challenges it will face is a troubled state budget.
If the tax money –– which has been going into the general fund budget since Johnstown was repaired –– was dedicated to those municipalities, it would create a hole in the state budget that would have to be filled somehow, Longietti said.
“I don’t think the bill has a chance” of passing, Miller said.
Miller pointed out it’s not a new tax and he never gave it much credibility because the state isn’t losing any money on this.
Sharon would get about $275,000 and Farrell could see an extra $121,000, Longietti has said, if the bill becomes law.
Greenville would get about $300,000 if the bill passes, but Miller said, “I’m not holding my breath.”
“Sometimes it takes a while,” Longietti said. “I’m certainly going to continue to advocate for it,” he added, noting that Gov. Ed Rendell has expressed an interest in the legislation.
Mrs. Brooks said she would also fight for its passage.