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Fairness? Special deal should include all taxpayers

3 min read

If you’re one of the hundreds (and perhaps thousands) of Fayette County property owners who owe interest and penalties for back taxes, you might want to march down to the courthouse and catch Commissioners Vincent A. Vicites and Joseph A. Hardy III while they are still in a tax-forgiving mood. And if you also live in the Brownsville Area School District, you might want to attend the next board meeting and ask to have your interest and penalties waived by them as well.

For reasons that defy the fairness doctrine, Vicites and Hardy, and the Brownsville school board, decided separately last week to forgive obligations of $5,452 in county taxes and $30,273 in school district taxes for Brownsville Marine Realty, LLC/HBC Realty, LLC.

The firm sought tax relief from interest and penalties owed by the former owners of the Hillman Barge site, successfully arguing that it shouldn’t be on the hook for interest and penalties accrued by the former owners.

But Fayette County Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink, who voted against county forgiveness of the owed money, was absolutely correct in stating that her peers, Vicites and Hardy, had gone down the path of playing favorites.

Wiping any property owner’s tax obligation off the books is not being fair and equal, said Zimmerlink, who noted, “It certainly will set a precedent.” Zimmerlink does not believe the county should be selective in granting tax forgiveness, and we agree with that principle.

Hardy, using logic that borders on a bigger-is-better elitism, even went to far as to say that only those companies hiring 200 people should have their tax debt forgiven. The last time we checked, the county was involved in a myriad of economic development programs, including LERTA and the Keystone Opportunity Zone, designed to help businesses expand without tossing extra tax forgiveness into the mix.

The Brownsville school board’s action is even more ironic, considering that they raised property taxes on everyone one-half mill at the same meeting where they absolved the barge company from $30,273 of tax debt. It’s a highly questionable action that should have other tax-delinquent taxpayers lining up to say, “What about me?”

No one wants to discourage businesses from opening up, expanding or staying in the county. But it’s wrong for any taxing body to forgive taxes for a single property owner, when others – business, commercial and yes, residential – will never get off the hook for paying the full amount of taxes, interest and penalty payments that they owe.

The county offers a payment plan designed for all property owners to get caught up in any back taxes that they owe. As part of that contract, they must make periodic payments in order to get caught up. But the unpaid portion remains subject to accrued interest and penalties.

What’s good for the proverbial goose is good for the gander. Neither the county commissioners nor the school board should be playing favorites. If they think that forgiving interest and penalties on back taxes owed in a good and acceptable idea, they should do it for everyone.

Otherwise they are playing favorites. And those who pay their taxes in a timely fashion, or who are enrolled in a payment plan that requires them to pay back the full amount, are getting the short end of a very messy stick.

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