Selinsgrove Area School District welcomes revenue from KOZ ending
Oct. 31—SELINSGROVE — Selinsgrove Area School District Business Director Jeffrey Hummel welcomes the ending of tax-exempt status after a decade for the former Sunbury Generation site in Snyder County which will bring in nearly $380,000 in additional tax revenue.
"While this is a welcome additional revenue source for the district it has not made up for the annual loss in revenue the district has experienced due to the number of commercial real estate appeals over the past eight years," said Hummel.
The annual loss in real estate revenue from these appeals is $551,377, he said.
Most of the revenue loss came from the reassessment of the Susquehanna Valley Mall. Other businesses that have appealed their assessments include Target, Walmart, Lowes, Dick's, Kohl's and Weis Markets.
When Sunbury Generation shut down in 2014, it was designated a Keystone Opportunity Zone with a 10-year tax-exempt status to help attract new businesses.
In the past decade, the Hummel Power Station and INSA LLC, a medical marijuana-growing plant, have located in the KOZ.
When the KOZ ends next year, the businesses will begin paying taxes totaling nearly $750,000, with the school district receiving the largest portion at about $486,000.
For the past decade, Hummel said, the power plant has paid the district about $107,000 in payment-in-lieu-of-taxes.
"The net effect to the district of the power plant coming on the real estate tax rolls will be $378,538.06 (or $485,532.91 real estate revenue minus the $106,994.85 in lieu of tax payment)," he said.
— MARCIA MOORE
