The Dallas Post Dallas, PA vi Wednesday, December 18, 1991 9° What it costs to live in the Back Mountain | Tax rates MUNICIPAL COUNTY , SCHOOL TOTAL 1992 POPULATON SPENDING MILLS 1992 proposed MILLS BUDGET PER PERSON DALLAS BOROUGH 14 61 158 233 $444,998 2,567 $173.35 (% of taxes)* 6% 26% 68% DALLAS TOWNSHIP Fa 6 61 158 225 $1,081,000 7,625 $141.77 0:0f taxes) 3% 27% 70% | | KINGSTON TOWNSHIP 8 1 5 61 158 224 $1,097,019 6,763 $162.21 (% of taxes) 2% 27% 71% ACKSON TOWNSHIP 4 3.5 61 176 240.5 $497,790 3,600 $138.28 taxes) 1% 25% 73% MAN TOWNSHIP 14 61 176 251 $438,819 3,076 $142.66 (% of taxes) 6% 24% 70% HARVEYS LAKE BOROUGH 21.5 61 176 258.5 $559,879 2,746 $203.89 (% of taxes) 8% 24% 68% LAKE TOWNSHIP 3 9 61 176 246 $213,425 1,924 $110.93 (% of taxes) 4% 25% 72% FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP 8 61 158 227 182,317 1,414 128.93 (% of taxes) 4% 27% 70% $ $ Note: The Dallas School District Millage is 158, and Lake-Lehman's is 176 for the 1991-92 school year New homes (continued from page 1) tax bill go up some, Anstett added that “you cannot have a tremendous windfall of tax dollars overall. The millages are dropped accordingly. The purpose of reassessment is to equalize valuation.” Because reassessment is not required by state law, county commissioners rarely undertake it because for politicians, reassessment spells “po- litical suicide.” Just ask Eric Brown, chief assessor for Wyo- ming County, where a general reassessment was conducted in 1988. “The equity or uniformity aspect was way out of hand,” said Brown. Before 1988, Wyoming County's last reassessment had been in 1962. Brown calls the public reaction to reassessment “extremely unpopular.” The public took their wrath to the polls. Of the three county commissioners, one decided to not run for reelection. The other two were defeated handily. - Anstett estimates that if Luzerne County were to reassess it's 143,000 properties, it would cost about $50 a property, or roughly $7 million, and take two to three years to complete. Brown adds however that once a county is reassessed once, periodic reassessments would be ‘Women Voters, she supported 1988's tax reform - system. And says Brown, if the state mandated reassess- ment, it might mean state funding for the job: besides taking pressure off of county commission- : | €rs. 3 State Representative Phyllis Mundy said that “J she sees two problems with periodic reassess- ‘| ments. One, they are expensive, and two, she would rather see taxes based upon ability to pay ; such as an earned income tax. : ER RE SRS ne A x: 25 4 A2Y x3 0% As president of the area branch of the League of i proposal which was badly defeated. The proposal : provided incentives for property reassessment and an earned income tax. The tax reform proposal also provided a Constitutional Amendment which would | have allowed residential and commercial property _} the commercial establishments would not be pay- ing an earned income tax. ; taxes to fund education and other things, we need : periodic reassessment,” said Mundy, who added * that the elderly and those on fixed incomes are : 3 bearing a tax load they may not be able to pay now. | ® equal more than 100% due to rounding. (continued from page 1), ¥ } New. people, often adding new hemes to the tax rolls. Dallas Township zoning officer Leonard Kozick estimates that for a period of4 or 5 years, from about 1985 to 1989 about 50 new homes were | builtin the township each year. In: this recessionary year, Kozick es- | timates that construction is down | ta 35 or 36 houses. | 2 5 “In the past 12 years, assess- a ment has almost doubled,” said Kozick. In 1980, the township's i tgtal assessed value was $12.7 | milion, now it is $18.4 million. Kingston Township manager gi34y Box describes new devel- 4 | developmentbecauseitwon'tneed | ahy work for a while. | tInatime when taxes everywhere | seem to be going up, Kingston | Township's tax millage has been 5 | mills since 1983, when it was ¥ reduced from 7 mills. Box expects township to carry over a sur- s of between $100,000 and assed by 228 people, or 3.49% in More importantly, it agcording to the township's zoning | an@health officer Benjamin Gorey, | betveen 30 and 35 new homes are | built in the township each year. | &While the recession may have | slowed the building somewhat, in ¥ ‘the long run the building boom in | Kingston Township is likely to { continue for quite a while. Accord- ig to Gorey, the township cur- rently has 267 lots ready to be | bhilt upon in already approved ~ stibdivisions, and another 81 lots a 1 J in“proposed subdivisions. M gf government home-rule q fof jg of government also gives it f ~ ofse’other major budgetary advan- tage: it can collect a full 1% per- cént earned income tax instead of 1/2% like other municipalities. The | edrned income tax is the town- | ship's majorrevenue producer, and isexpected to bring in $825,000 in 1992. +“ would say that is more fair | because it is based on ability to |= ," says Box of the tax. «In contrast, an aging commu- nity like Plymouth Borough, with one of the highest tax rates in | Luzerne County at 48.6 mills, has } borrow $40,000 from the bank nag with a $150,000 tax antici- pi fon loan to make ends meet. | Irdsvead of growing, the township 1 lost 6.19% of its population in the 1980s. {Even in the Back Mountain, Dallas Borough a community with | liftle room to grow is facing a bare ~ bgnes budget. From 1980 to 1991, the assessed value of the township | grew only 22.7%, instead of the 40 ‘| orore percent most other Back ‘| Mountain communities experi- ~ eficed. : ~~ ¥Though taxes were kept at 14 ills, council president Donald | Cooper was prompted to say, “This | isia very lean budget. It will work aly with prudent management, a =p 53 | (Thinking of You) - A i) "Cards and Gifts : Kor Your Holiday Gift Giving . Christmas and Hanukkah Distinctive Tabletop Items and Decorative Accessories : Holiday Greeting Cards Collectible Figurines Featuring Laura's Attic Miss Martha's Collection ‘Memories of Yesterday Briercroft Collection Uniquely Yours Holiday Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10-8 Sat. 10-5 + Sun. 12-5 United Penn Plaza Shopping Ctr., Kingston Ca Sa 4 3 a % oc 4 (4: BEAR AL TE A KB 8 Th I £40,000 into 1992. 43 ¢ township's population in- | a the 1980s. bolt of lightning and an act of God,” when Dallas Borough's council passed their budget in No- vember. Why zoning and planning? New development is not without its drawback. Too much development, of the wrong kind, in the wrong place can hurt the environment, cause dan- gerous traffic or strain water re- sources. - “I think there's a need for zon- ing,” said Mark Corgan, a partner with his brother Michael Corgan in Corgan Contracting. “The Poconos are a prime example of a an area ‘that was overdeveloped. The envi- ronment has really suffered.” And though Corgan says that no one wants to deal with the hassles, “if you look at the long term, zoning is good for both the contractor and the home owner, because it protects the property values.” ae by And from" the municipalities’ point of view, “the controls are what actually contribute to the quality,” said Gorey. “If we didn't have the specifications, I'm sure they'd be putting down half an inch of blacktop over dirt (on new roads) and they'd be broken up in _ a year for the township to fix.” Kingston Township is in the process of updating its compre- hensive plan, which will take about six months. According to Dr. Mar- tin Brotter, the consultant who is updating the plan, the study will determine traffic patterns to de- cide if any road improvements are necessary, determine what areas are suitable for which type of de- velopment, and discover ifimprove- ments are needed for community facilities. Kozick said that municipalities also try to avoid situations like I CAMRged euenase ! At our new location IGATEWAY SHOPPING CENTER! One FREE Package Country Christmas Beverage Napkins § with your purchase of $5.00 or more I with this coupon + expires 12/24/91 i g NO OTHER DISCOUNTS APPLY i NEW PHONE - 283-1918 oe] ART GALLERY N.J. Grumm Gallery GRAND OPENING Sun. Dec. 22nd 12:00 to 5:00 PM. 311 Market St., Kingston (Located in Korals Complex) 288-7104 Dallas Township has with Shaver Street. which was putin more than 50 years ago, before the township had any planning ordinances. The street ends in a dead end and there's no space to turn around, which means the township had to get a private landowner's permis- sion to turn around their vehicles. Adrian Merolli, executive direc- tor of the Luzerne County Plan- ning Commission, says that plan- ners are doing what they've always done, but public awareness of planning has increased. “You go back fifteen years ago. I'd have a lot of meetings and no one would show up,” said Merolli. Merolli- stresses that when the planning commission makes itrec- ommendations, its not what is being proposed, so much as where it being proposed. Today the public is concerned with planning issues. The rezoning for the Deer Mead- ows subdivision in Dallas Borough in 1988 drew a lot of public pro- test, as did a proposal early this year to develop Hanson's Amuse- ment Park townhouses. “I think everybody has a greater awareness of these issues,” said Merolli. “I think that's a good trend.” Save Time * Trouble « Money with a subscriptionto ~~ The Dallas Post - j 2763 lo) It Ralph Lauren : (a Ji Fine Clothing For Men & Boys Lg A121 UNITED PENN PLAZA KINGSTON - 288-2125 - Holiday Hours - Mon.-Fri., 10-8; Sat., 10-5; Sun., 12-4 rte 20” OFF Custom Framing thru Jan. a ex We feature: Regional Artists Prints - Original Art Antiques & Collectibles Gift Items J ¥ vs - faster and cheaper because much of the informa- tion would already be entered into a computer to be.” “Property is no longer the sign of wealth that it used Hasay will move his district office to Mountaintop Rep. George C. Hasay said re- cently that he is moving his dis- trict office to 369 South Mountain Blvd. in the Grouse Hill Center, on Route 309, Mountaintop. Hasay said that he has moved his office from the Sans Souci Parkway because the Legislative Reapportionment Commission removed Hanover Township from his district. “I am relocating my office to better serve the constituents that have and hope to have in the newly- drawn district,” Hasay said. “The district will now include half of Bear Creek Township, three pre- cincts in Plains Township which borders Bear Creek Township, Denison Township, Hollenback Township, Nescopeck Township, Penn Lake Borough and Black Creek Township. “The office, off Route 309 will be easily accessible to most residents of the district, particularly the growing Mountaintop community. Hasay said the district will be the largest in thearea inthe county. He is installing a computerized phone system which will permit most of his constituents to call toll-free. There will be a telephone number for the 474 exchange (Mountaintop area), 474-2276; a number for the 542 exchange (Shickshinny area), 542-7345 and a number for residents from the . Lehman area, 287-7505. “The new 117th District will be predominantly rural,” Hasay said. “As always Shickshinny area residents may drop off items for processing by PennDOT and other state agencies at my dad's garage at Hasay Chevrolet,” he said. Fhe Country Horseman ; Hand Crafted Western Boots ~~ Australian Out Back |: Coats & Hats Unique Jewelry & Gifts - ift Certificates Children's Cowboy Boots Just Arrived fi Open 7 days starting Dec. 10 - 7 Daily » Thurs. till 9 Sat. 10-5Sun. 12-5 717-675-7043 After Hours Phone 717-639-5664 P.O. Box 167 Rt. 118 & Outlet Rd. i Lehman, PA 18627-0167 DE . eR a LP od - Don't miss the news : Subscribe to The Dallas Post 8 into a site for a Pizza & Pasta NOW OPEN! 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