A proposal to extend the period during which Lehighton Area School District taxpayers can pay a discounted property tax rate will be sent to the district’s finance committee for review.

Director David Bradley made a motion during Monday night’s school board meeting to extend the discount period for all taxes levied by the district to Dec. 31.

“It is a challenging time and there are an exceedingly large amount of people not working right now,” said Gail Maholick, who voted in favor of the motion. “This just might allow some people to stay in their homes.”

The motion failed on a 5-2 vote with Larry Stern, Wayne Wentz, Rita Spinelli, Stephen Holland and Nathan Foeller voting it down in favor of a review by the committee.

“I would like to see the finance committee take a look at it to see what impact this would have on the district’s finances throughout the 2020-21 school year,” Stern said.

Several proposals to deal with property tax payment have been before legislators in Harrisburg since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the loss of employment for many residents.

Legislation co-sponsored by state Rep. Rosemary Brown, Pike and Monroe counties, would extend the discount period by one month and extend the face value period before any penalty would be imposed until Dec. 31, 2020.

“School taxes are one of the largest and most difficult taxes for our residents to pay on a normal basis,” Brown said. “Under these circumstances it’s going to be even more difficult. We must continue to try to give residents time and the ability to take advantage of the discount period.”

Under normal circumstances, taxpayers receive their bill around July 1 and have two months to pay the discounted rate and four months to pay without penalty.

A more aggressive amendment to another bill that would have frozen property taxes for 2020-21 has been pulled from the table for now by House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster. Superintendents in Bucks County penned a letter saying a property tax freeze would be “disastrous” this far into the budget planning process.

Districts are required to pass a 2020-21 budget by June 30.

During a finance committee meeting in February, Patricia Denicola, Lehighton business administrator, said the district would be working to cut into a projected $3.49 million deficit.

Denicola, who has been in the position since March 2019, said the district’s expenditures rose from $41.47 million in 2016-17 to a projected $44.41 million in 2020-21, while revenues only rose from $40.57 million to $40.92 million over that same period.

“We’re now budgeting using year-end actuals to cut down on historical overruns,” she told the board.

Though the board voted down the motion to extend the property tax discount period on Monday, directors did not close the door on another vote after finance committee discussion.

“I just think we need to wait until after that finance meeting,” Holland said.

Lehighton’s next finance committee meeting is scheduled for May 11 at 6 p.m.