County adopts ordinance imposing fee on tax, sheriff sale purchases to fight blight
Lackawanna County commissioners recently adopted an ordinance that adds a fee to the purchase price of properties sold at tax and sheriff sales — a new revenue stream officials will use to battle blight in local communities.
The $250 fee paid by property purchasers will be deposited into a 'demolition and rehabilitation fund' administered by the Lackawanna County Land Bank, which could use those designated funds to raze or rehabilitate blighted buildings or award the funding through a competitive process to municipalities and other entities for property demolition or rehabilitation projects, per the ordinance
State Act 48 of 2024 allows counties to establish such a fund and impose an up to $250 fee on the sale of any tax-delinquent property sold in accordance with Pennsylvania's Real Estate Tax Sale Law. It also allows for the fee to be applied to mortgage foreclosure properties sold at sheriff sales.
The Lackawanna County Tax Claim Bureau conducts tax sales, where potential buyers can purchase certain tax-delinquent properties, while the county sheriff's office conducts sheriff sales. Properties sold at sheriff sales are mortgage and judgment defaults, not tax-delinquent properties.
Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Chris Chermak adopted the ordinance Wednesday at the same meeting where they accepted former Commissioner Matt McGloin's resignation. Officials can start imposing the fee 90 days from the date of passage, giving them time to set up the program, county economic development Director Kristin Magnotta said.
Lackawanna County is the third in Pennsylvania to adopt such an ordinance, following Jefferson and Clarion counties, officials said.
'I'm really proud of this program,' Gaughan said, calling it forward-thinking. 'I think it's really going to help put money back into neighborhoods across Lackawanna County to either fight blight or, if the properties are beyond repair, to demolish them, so we're really excited about this.'
Had it been in place last year, the fee would have generated about $40,000 from properties sold at tax sales, county Tax Claim Bureau Director Barbara Lynady said last month.
The bureau will hold the 2025 Judicial Tax Sale on March 24 at the Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple. Tax-delinquent properties sold at judicial sales are sold free and clear of any liens, judgments or mortgages.
Information on the forthcoming sale is available online at lackawannacounty.org.
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