SVSD: Borough’s nonpayment of school taxes ‘deliberate… not an oversight’
SHENANDOAH – Shenandoah Borough’s efforts to collect delinquent utility bills and taxes brought to light delinquent tax bills of their own owed to the Shenandoah Valley School District which the latter said Wednesday was ‘deliberate, consciously made, and not an oversight.”
District Solicitor Robert Matta read a prepared statement at Wednesday’s monthly school board meeting outlining their side of the issue, which has been ongoing for a month and led Portnoff Law Associates to back out of an agreement to collect delinquencies for the borough.
Portnoff also serves as tax collector for the Shenandoah Valley School District and has since 2005.
Matta said they became aware in July that the borough owed school taxes on several pieces of property they owned, many of which became delinquent in 2018.
The discovery came as a result of Portnoff’s agreement to collect trash and sewer bills for the borough, Matta said in the statement.
Borough and school officials met, where the borough admitted that the taxes were not paid and said they intended to pay the debt. The borough also asked that the interest owed be waived.
“Upon further investigation, it was determined that the actions of the borough in not paying the tax bills was deliberate, consciously made, and not an oversight,” Matta said. “This determination was based upon the fact that the borough had annually paid its taxes owed for the county/borough bills (the first annual tax bill), yet chose not to pay the District the taxes it was owed (the second annual tax bill). Moreover, this has been ongoing for at least six years.”
“It is not fair to the residents of the District who pay their taxes in a timely and responsible manner that the Borough of Shenandoah should be allowed to shirk their responsibilities,” Matta added.
Matta, in backing the district’s belief that the delinquencies are intentional, called back to the PILOT controversy which led to a lawsuit.
The borough, through a 1967 agreement ahead of the construction of the Shenandoah High Rise and Shenandoah Family Development, agreed to be a pass-through for payments in lieu of taxes. The Schuylkill County Housing Authority would pay the borough, who would split that payment with the applicable taxing bodies, including the Shenandoah Valley School District.
From 2000 through 2015, the borough never disbursed those funds as agreed.
The tax delinquencies were originally due to be paid on Sept. 30, though Council President Joe Boris hand-delivered a letter to Matta requesting an extension until Oct. 30, which was verbally agreed upon by the district, Matta said.
The district, Matta said, expects the borough to pay $38,314 — the total back taxes and interest owed — on or before that date.
At the regular meeting of council in September, the borough voted to pay the taxes and Borough Manager Tony Sajone accepted responsibility for the situation, though the delinquencies predate his employment.
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