KCSD Okays Payment in Lieu of Taxes for UPMC Lock Haven Hospital
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – The Keystone Central School District Thursday night became the third and final Clinton County taxing body to accept a payment in lieu of real estate taxes agreement with UPMC Lock Haven.
The board unanimously approved, without comment, a “community contribution agreement” with UPMC Lock Haven. The settlement means the school district will be paid $64,000 annually for the next four years. The district had received $159,690 earlier this year in real estate tax proceeds.
The school district-hospital agreement says that Keystone Central will not contest that the hospital is exempt from real estate and business privilege taxes and the hospital “recognizes the fiscal needs of the school district; and the services provided to the hospital by the school district.”
The board approval means Keystone Central joins the City of Lock Haven and Clinton County in accepting a payment in lieu of taxes. The city had been receiving some $71,000 annually in taxes from the hospital, the county over $72,000 a year in recent years. Starting in 2021, the city will be getting $40,000 a year, the county just over $38,000 a year through 2024.Both the county and the city had approved their accords earlier this fall.
UPMC Susquehanna Lock Haven purchased Lock Haven Hospital in 2017and has been paying real estate taxes in the interim; the previous hospital owner had been a for-profit facility. But new owner UPMC filed its property value assessment appeal in August of last year with the Clinton County Assessment Office.
The previous board of county commissioners, as the county assessment board, had denied a UPMC Susquehanna Lock Haven assessment appeal last year. That denial came after the county decision to turn down the hospital’s real estate tax appeal.
Lawyers for UPMC had gone into Clinton County Court a year ago, arguing that the Lock Haven-based hospital is “a purely public charity…exempt from real estate property taxes” under state assessment law. The petition noted the commissioners denied the exemption request “without opinion and without articulating a basis for the denial.” The appellant asked that the court reverse the county decision and direct that UPMC Susquehanna Lock Haven “be classified as a tax-exempt organization” for its real estate taxes in the county.
All three taxing bodies have now accepted the “exemption from taxation agreement” through 2024.
