Real estate tax break ordinance referred to Luzerne County Council

A proposed Luzerne County ordinance setting parameters for future real estate tax break requests will advance to County Council for possible adoption, a committee decided Monday.

The council’s Community Planning and Economic Development Committee reviewed the latest version on Monday and voted to forward it to the full council.

It would set eligibility requirements for all developers seeking county tax breaks, including reports on job creation, wages, and projected economic returns.

Ongoing performance reporting is also mandated to evaluate whether projects “continue to provide meaningful public benefit throughout the duration of the tax exemption,” it said.

Penn’s Northeast President and CEO John Augustine had expressed general support for the proposed ordinance earlier this year, when council Chairman Jimmy Sabatino sought his input to ensure the development sector had an opportunity to weigh in.

County Community Planning and Economic Development Division Head Ted Ritsick also reviewed the proposal and suggested revisions that were incorporated into the final proposal, committee members said Monday.

Augustine had been highly critical of last summer’s county proposal, which was later scrapped, to standardize county tax break discounts by project type, such as warehousing/logistics, manufacturing, and tech-based development. He and some council members had predicted the plan would deter development.

Under the current proposal, tax break applicants would have to identify the number of permanent jobs to be created, the median annual and hourly wages for those jobs, and the anticipated timeline for job creation.

Other advanced requirements include:

• A detailed project description, including scope, anticipated timeline, and total capital investment.

• Analyses evaluating the project’s tax implications and projected economic return.

• A description of the project’s anticipated impact on infrastructure and public services, such as transportation access, utilities, stormwater management, and emergency services.

• A summary of any public incentives, grants, or abatements beyond the tax break approved at the time of application.

For projects frequently built “on speculation” before tenants are known, applicants may provide comparable data from similar facilities and economic impact estimates.

Approved projects would also be subject to annual reporting throughout the break that includes disclosure of permanent jobs associated with the project, the median annual and hourly wages by job category, the number and percentage of jobs held by county residents, and a breakdown of which jobs are full-time, part-time, temporary, or seasonal.

Also required in the annual report: the number of jobs offering employer-sponsored health insurance and retirement benefits.

Failure to submit the required annual report may be considered by County Council if the same developer or affiliated entities submit future tax break requests, it…