POTTSTOWN PA – Real estate values have their cyclical ups and downs. For the Pottsgrove School District right now, the cycle’s on the up-side in at least two instances, and that’s good news for the revenue portion of the district’s 2010-2011 budget.

• District Business Administrator David Nester last week (May 25, 2010) told the Board of School Directors they could anticipate receiving $145,000 in additional tax income next year from the Upland Square Shopping Center at Route 100 and Upland Square Drive, West Pottsgrove (PA) Township.
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  The former Occidental property is now being marketed as the TriCounty Business Park.

  And during a Lower Pottsgrove Township Board of Commissioners’ meeting earlier in the month, it was announced the district also negotiated a substantial settlement on the value of property off Armand Hammer Boulevard owned by Occidental Chemical.

As the economy recovers and more retail tenants fill Upland Square’s remaining vacant storefronts, its real estate value rises, Nester told school directors. Recent additions there have increased the property’s worth sufficiently to bring more tax cash to the district, he noted.

Problem is, Nester added, that state funding for 2011 is likely be substantially cut. Rather than serve as a tax-reducing boon to the budget’s bottom line, the extra $145,000 will only offset a portion of the state’s reduction. The added property tax revenue, and decisions to hold off on other budgeted expenses, were part of the board’s solution in keeping its budgeted tax increase at 4.5 percent.

Not discussed by Nester, but disclosed during Lower Pottsgrove’s May 20 commissioners’ meeting, was the district’s apparent win in negotiating a new value for Occidental Chemical holdings on the south side of U.S. Route 422 at Armand Hammer Boulevard.

Rather than proceed with a trial over the assessed value of its property, which township solicitor R. Kurtz Holloway said was $272,000, Occidental agreed to accept a value of $534,000 retroactive to January 2007. That means the district will collect some back taxes from Occidental, as well as additional taxes in coming years.

The settlement is based on a scale of value: the property is agreed to have been worth the $534,000 amount in 2007, then $507,000 in 2008, and then $508,000 in 2009, 2010, and beyond. Even so, Holloway noted, the settlement almost doubles the district’s tax income from Occidental for the recent past and in years ahead. He credited the district with being “aggressive” in fighting commercial property owners over assessment values.

The township also receives tax revenue based on the property’s value, although far less than that of the district. Consequently, commissioners had to agree to accept the district’s proposed settlement before it could be finalized. They did, unanimously.

Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ May 25 meeting):

• Real Estate’s Improved For School District, Tax-Wise
• Kozloski Leaving Pottsgrove IT For North Penn
• Board Cuts Budget More, But Keeps After-School Busing
• Pottsgrove Authorizes Pius Lease For Ringing Relocation

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of May 20):

• Real Estate’s Improved For School District, Tax-Wise
• Township Declares Fallen Light Pole A Hazard
• Call Goes Out For Ringing Rocks Construction Bids
• Lower Pottsgrove’s Reviled System Generates Reverent Talk
• In Lower Pottsgrove, Legal Paperwork Out The Gazoo
• Cracks, Crumbles Mean Trouble In Township

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