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Blair County Commissioner Bruce Erb attended Monday evening’s LERTA meeting held by the Williamsburg School District, Williamsburg Borough and Catharine and Woodbury townships.
LERTA is the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance program, created by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1977. This tax abatement program was created to help entice new businesses, to start new construction projects and have homeowners motivated to improve their properties.
The meeting was presented by Nathan Karn, solicitor of the Williamsburg Borough, Catharine Township and for the county.
With LERTA, new construction or certain improvements to properties can earn residents or businesses a sizable tax break over five years.
Improvements to properties came into question during the meeting, and Karn explained it isn’t paving or a new deck. Questions about eligible improvements should be directed to the Blair County Assessment Office. For example, if the improvement was $100,000, the property as it was would be taxed, not the improvement. So, over five years, the first year, the improvement would be 100 percent exempt; the second year, 80 percent exempt; and so on until the fifth year, with 20 percent exemption.
“More folks would want to improve properties,” Karn said. “This can be an exciting thing for Williamsburg.”
Karn added that this is good timing, as the 911 Trail will be going through Williamsburg.
Erb echoed that same sentiment.
“It’s a win-win for everyone. There’s not a downside to it, and a lot of potential upsides,” Erb said.
The next step for the borough and the townships would have been adopting an ordinance to put LERTA into effect, and the school board to adopt a resolution. However, a discrepancy was made during the advertisement of the LERTA meeting with the wrong statute advertised. There will be another public meeting held at a later date, to be announced.
This did not deter the elected officials, who had nothing but positive things to say about the LERTA program.
“We have to be competitive. We need to have our eyes and ears open when going forward,” Williamsburg Borough Council member Ed Patterson said.
Catharine Township Vice Chairman Ken Brenneman agreed.
“It’s great to get businesses here and it can give residents the ability to make improvements on their properties,” Brenneman said. “Anything for Williamsburg.”
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