Lock Haven Council to Act Monday on UPMC Lock Haven Tax-Exempt Status
LOCK HAVEN— Lock Haven City Council Monday night is expected to join Clinton County in accepting a payment in lieu of taxes with UPMC Lock Haven.
The Monday night council agenda calls for council to act on an agreement with the hospital. It would run through the end of 2024 and call for $40,000 to be paid to the city annually in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. UPMC has already paid its 2020 tax responsibilities in the amount of $71,073.
The accord means the city, beginning in 2021, will be getting about $31,000 a year less than it had received in recent years. The council resolution says the agreement reflects the city’s “desire to avoid expensive and protracted litigation over the hospital’s qualification for a real estate tax exemption.”
The accord is similar to a settlement approved by the Clinton County Commissioners at their meeting last week.
Terms of that county agreement mean that Clinton County will be getting roughly 52 percent of what the county has been receiving in real estate taxes in recent years. The county will be receiving just over $193,000 total for a 5-year agreement. The county has been the recipient of $72,421 annually in real estate taxes. That amount will drop to just over $38,000 a year.
The Keystone Central School District board has yet to act on a tax exemption agreement. The board’s next voting session will be Nov. 12. The school district has been collecting $161,190 annually.
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.
