The members of the Lehighton Borough Council decided to move forward with the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance program, which had been discussed in the past; but, was never approved.

“LERTA is a program we adopted that would deal tax breaks to people who would want to do some work on their commercial businesses, to spruce them up,” Lehighton Borough Manager Dane DeWire explained.

DeWire gave an example that if a business that was worth $100,000, did work to renovate the business, and as a result, it was then worth $200,000, their taxes would increase to the higher assessment value. But, with LERTA, they would only rise 10% each year for 10 years until it reached the maximum tax amount.

However, DeWire said the Lehighton School District and Carbon County would have to approve the program for it to work.

“The program would only be useful as long as the school and the county pass similar ordinances to be on board,” DeWire pointed out. “If they do not, it doesn’t do business owners any good to apply to this program.”

DeWire and Lehighton Mayor Ryan Saunders met with the school board and the superintendent to discuss the program. The school had some questions and concerns.

• The was no sunset provision, or an ending date for the length of the program.

• There was no provision for the transfer of ownership of the business. Should the tax break extend to the next owner?

• Could the minimum amount of $25,000 be waived?

• Could the maximum of five applicants be waived?

• Would there be a provision for taxpayers to appeal the increased tax rate?

Borough Council authorized the Borough Solicitor James Nanovic to make changes to the current ordinance to address the school board’s questions and concerns.

“I’ll share our comments with them; and, as long as they agree 100%, we can adopt it at our next meeting,” DeWire concluded.