Luzerne County Council set to vote on veteran benefit, court lease and city loan

Luzerne County Council is set to vote Tuesday on expanding real estate tax exemption for disabled veterans, authorizing a court-requested lease of a Kingston property and loaning Wilkes-Barre $500,000 for emergency infrastructure work.

Honorably discharged veterans are eligible for real estate tax exemption if they were disabled during a period of war, and council has been considering adding disabled non-wartime veterans to the program for county taxes only.

County Councilwoman LeeAnn McDermott sought the expansion after learning about the issue from Wilkes-Barre resident Anthony Hall, a veteran disabled outside a period of war.

Council had delayed voting on the matter at its June 10 meeting due to internal legal analysis questioning the county’s authority to alter eligibility requirements.

However, a council majority indicated it wants to proceed. Council heard from several veterans seeking the expansion and noted that some other counties already have implemented the expansion without any legal problems.

An estimated 19 non-wartime disabled veterans currently would be eligible to collectively stop paying $14,660 in county real estate taxes if the expansion is approved, officials said. The county cannot mandate expansion for school and municipal taxes.

Court lease

Council had removed the proposed court lease from its June 10 voting agenda, citing the need for further review of a revised proposal that had been submitted to council the day before that meeting.

Court officials want to lease an 11,900-square-foot property at 310 Market St. in Kingston to house the county’s Domestic Relations office, which would free up space to fit all family court judicial operations inside the county-owned Bernard C. Brominski Building on North Street in Wilkes-Barre.

The new proposal reduced the lease term from 15 years to a decade. In exchange for this concession, the property owner — JDP Realty Inc. — wants to extend the time the county would be permitted to end the lease if state, federal and local funding for Domestic Relations is reduced or ceases, which court officials say they are confident will not occur. Initially, the county could opt out after 36 months, but the new proposal is after 60 months.

County Court Administrator Paul Hindmarsh has emphasized state funding for Domestic Relations would cover the lease, not the county’s general fund operating budget. Lease payments would be $25,783 per month, or $309,396 annually.

The updated proposal preserves a right of first refusal for the county if the property is listed for sale, Hindmarsh said. Officials said JDP is not interested in selling the property to the county at this time.

Wilkes-Barre loan

Most county council members have expressed support for a proposal to loan Wilkes-Barre $500,000 to help fund emergency infrastructure repairs.

Instead of an outright allocation as requested by the city, the county administration had agreed to seek council approval to loan the city $500,000 in community development funds without charging interest and require the city to repay the county $8,333 per month over five years.

City officials are trying to round up an estimated $1.2 million to address two antiquated systems that have collapsed at times: a metal culvert running under Scott Street to Conyngham Avenue that channels stormwater from Wilkes-Barre Township and a large and deep terra cotta combined sewer and stormwater line on Horton Street that services about half of the city.

Councilman Harry Haas had questioned the practice of loaning funds to municipalities and lack of an interest charge on the borrowing.

Advocates said the community development funds cannot be used for internal county infrastructure projects and that the county has a responsibility to help the city, which is the county seat.

Tax break schedule

Discussion will also continue during Tuesday’s work session on a proposal to set tax break guidelines by category.

The proposal to set tax break guidelines by category prompted extensive debate during council’s June 10 meeting but was ultimately tabled to provide economic development entities — namely Penn’s Northeast President/CEO John Augustine — an opportunity to weigh in at a future public meeting.

Augustine is scheduled to attend Tuesday’s work session, which follows the voting meeting. He had submitted an email urging council to table a decision until it can seek input from economic development professionals and developers.

Councilman Jimmy Sabatino, who chairs council’s infrastructure committee, had proposed the idea of a schedule to his council colleagues during discussion about a tax break in March, saying council should decide in advance what fees and discounts it deems acceptable for warehousing and logistic, manufacturing and tech-based development.

The infrastructure committee subsequently agreed to present the resulting recommendation to the full council for its consideration and input.

Under the suggestions, warehousing and logistics development would receive the least favorable break — five years instead of the maximum allowable decade, with a discount of 50% the first year and decreasing 10% annually to a final 10% off taxes in the fifth year.

A development fee of $5,000 per acre also would be owed to the county, it said.

The proposed discount for manufacturing and tech-based development would be 90% the first year and decrease by 10% annually, ending with 5% in the tenth year, it said.

Development fees would be $2,500 per acre for manufacturing and $3,500 per acre for tech-based development.

Tuesday’s meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Instructions to attend remotely are posted under council’s online meetings section at luzernecounty.org.