Late fees for property taxes waived in West Chester

WEST CHESTER » Borough Council voted unanimously on a resolution to waive penalties for “late” payment of property taxes. Councilman Bill Scott was absent from the virtual special meeting, Tuesday night.

Taxpayers usually have until Sept. 1 to pay property taxes without a 10 percent penalty. Enforcement of a penalty was moved back to Dec. 31. Property owners are still required to pay taxes.

“The COVID-19 emergency has resulted in significant hardship for the taxpayers and citizens of the Borough of West Chester,” reads the resolution.

Freshman Councilman Nick Allen, W2, lobbied for landlords not paying taxes by Sept. 1 to also waive late fees through Dec. 31 for their tenants.

Borough President Mike Galey said that the borough was informed by its solicitor that it “doesn’t have that authority” to take such an action.

“It’s a great idea Nick, but there is no enforcement,” Galey said. “I would worry that including that would invalidate the resolution as a whole.”

Councilwoman Denise Polk said she was going to have to defer to the solicitor, or the “expert in this case.”

Several other local municipalities have already enacted the April 20 state order requiring municipalities to deliver a copy of the agreed to resolution to the borough’s tax collector by May 20.

Taxpayers receive a 2 percent discount for paying their property taxes by March 31.

Many of those homeowners pay property taxes along with their monthly mortgage payment.

Borough Manager Mike Perrone said Friday that $3.1 million of an anticipated $5.15 million borough income has already been paid. He said this revenue payment is in line with what was received at this time during 2019.

“The finance director and I are monitoring revenue and expenses on a daily basis,” Perrone said about the 6.96 millage rate. A mill is a levy of one tenth of one percent of assessed property value.

In other related news, at the urging of student Katherine Fox, of Advocates for West Chester University Renters, Perrone was asked by council to prepare a general letter of support seeking relief for tenants at WCU.

Many student tenants signed leases for non-university, off-campus housing, and since the university moved to remote modes of instruction following the March 10 announcement by President Chris Fiorentino have not visited their housing in the borough.

Councilman Don Braceland said that landlords are hurting too. He said that any action by the borough to waive late fees should not be student centered and would likely become a “hot potato” in Harrisburg.

“We understand this is a complex, layered issue,” Fox said.

The university has already refunded a pro-rated amount for dorm rooms, meals and other associated costs to students living on-campus.