August 22, 2011
By JIM RUNKLE, The ExpressLOCK HAVEN - Wayne Township, the lone holdout among Clinton County municipalities when it came to a new tax collection system, decided to provide $100 toward a Supreme Court challenge to that change.
Last year, the Keystone Central School District transitioned from the old tax collection system to a new "lock-box" system," which means the payments are being sent to a new address rather than to the 29 elected municipal tax collectors in the region.
For some taxpayers, the only difference will be the address to which they will mail their checks; for others, it will mean a trip to the bank, rather than a visit to their local tax collector.
That is, for all municipalities except Wayne Township, which opted to stay with the old tax collection system. In that municipality, things will operate pretty much as they always have.
In Wayne, the local tax collector gathered about $1.27 million in real estate taxes, for which she was paid $147 last year.
Wayne Township itself has no real estate tax, as its budget is supported revenue it receives from the Wayne Township Landfill as host municipality, by fees on permits and state funding. As host municipality to the landfill, the township receives cash based on the amount of tonnage disposed of at the landfill eac year.
The request from the Pennsylvania Tax Collectors Association noted that the money will be used for attorney fees for written and oral arguments before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
According to the county assessment office, over 22,000 tax bills go out each year.
The change actually began in February 2009, when district officials dramatically lowered the compensation for local tax collectors - in the hope it would encourage all 29 collectors to abandon their duties and turn them over to the district's own tax office.
School district officials said the new system is saving the school district about $65,000 each year.
The other benefits to the new system include a centralized payment collection, "expedited collection" of funds to increase cash flow and earning potential, cost savings in mileage, comprehensive electronic reporting and, reportedly, convenience for customers who make those payments.
The Commonwealth Court ruled in favor of Pennridge and Central Bucks, based upon its prior decisions where other school districts took similar steps to save taxpayer dollars.
The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of a decision that cut tax collectors' pay by 69 percent in Pennridge and 80 percent in Central Bucks school districts.
Tax collectors say the low pay was an effort to push them out of office to make way for a lockbox system, where banks collect taxes and the school provides customer service.
State law prohibits a school district from implementing a lockbox unless the office of tax collector is vacant or the collector deputizes another person or entity to perform his or her duties.
The state Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether Commonwealth Court was wrong to grant the school districts' appeal.
Among the issues they will consider is whether school districts can make full-scale changes in the system in a way that hasn't been sanctioned by the state's general assembly.