Property tax payment deadlines will remain the same in Palmerton Area School District.

Palmerton’s board kicked the tires on extending the period during which property owners could pay the tax at the nonpenalty base rate.

On Tuesday night, however, the board received the financial impact of such a decision, leading to its ultimate decision to keep the timeline the same.

“We would lose about $130,000 that we normally do receive during the penalty phase of the payment period,” said Palmerton Business Manager Ryan Kish. “It does add up in a year when revenues and expenditures for school districts are expected to be nowhere near normal.”

Director Earl Paules, who originally requested the flat rate be extended until the end of December, couldn’t fathom why that many taxpayers would take the 10% penalty for late payment.

“What do we need to do to educate them,” Paules said. “That’s a lot of money. I thought we were trying to do a good thing.”

Kish said about 80% of people pay their property taxes during the 2% discount period, which runs through July and August. Beyond that, however, the district does budget a certain amount for delinquent taxes each year. Should the flat-rate period have been extended, some of that delinquent tax income may have gone away.

“We raised taxes this year to try to make up for prior years where we had kept taxes level,” board member Doris Zellers said. “If we do this extension, we may be shooting ourselves in the foot by losing some of that revenue. I empathize with taxpayers, but it seems most of them are paying during the discount period anyway. If others are going to wait and take the penalty in prior years, they will probably do that this year anyway.”

With tax bills having already been in the hands of property owners for over a month with the original payment deadlines on them, Kish added, changing that timeline could lead to a great deal of confusion.

“We wanted to do a good thing,” board member Audrey Larvey said, “but with what the numbers are showing, it won’t make a difference. If people are willing to pay the penalty, I don’t know if they are worried about the kindness we are willing to show.”