Unfortunately, Lancaster City is stuck with more than a quarter of its real estate being tax-exempt, a large portion of which is owned by the Lancaster County government (both court houses, the court house annex across King St., 150 N. Queen St., the prison, the Youth Intervention Center, the convention center, and other scattered properties).
We all know that the Lancaster County government will never provide Lancaster City with payments in lieu of taxes. Lancaster City also hosts the overwhelming majority of social services for all of Lancaster County. In addition, a large number of houses of worship are located within the City limits, many of which have congregations predominantly made up of suburban residents.
Lancaster City doesn’t have the luxury of paving over farmland to increase its tax base, like the rest of the County does. As more and more prime real estate is removed from the tax rolls to satisfy the ever-increasing demands of governmental and social services for the rest of Lancaster County, the
burden on Lancaster City taxpayers continues to become much more difficult for us to bear.
It’s long past the time when Lancaster County residents should be paying for their fair share of Lancaster City services. Meanwhile, Lancaster City residents like me are forced to pay outrageous taxes to subsidize expenses like police, fire, street maintenance, and snow removal that benefit government and social services which are provided for the people of Lancaster County.
Thanks for my first belly laugh of the day! There really is nothing like a whining city resident complaining that someone else should foot the bill for the fiscal irresponsibility of city government the city residents keep re-electing! You all have made your bed, now lie in it. And don’t try to shift your frivolous spending off on the rest of us!
Most of the county never sets foot in your city cesspool. The parking is atrocious and expensive. The shops don’t even keep regular hours! Central Market sells fewer and fewer “necessities” and more and more useless stuff. There are fewer police and firefighters so your silly mayor can “beautify” and focus all his attention on convention attenders who are nowhere to be seen. Get over yourselves! You really think the city is important to County residents? We’d be very happy without you. Most of us never need the courthouse. We are law-abiding folks. Most of us don’t use social services. We take care of ourselves and our own. And stick your head in the city “houses of worship”. Then come visit some of the mega-churches out in the County. That’s where the rest of us are.
Outrageous taxes? Confront the mayor you just re-elected, and your precious city council. Don’t come knocking at my door. You get the kind of government you deserve. With Democrats running the city and a Democrat governor you are going to be in pain.
Ideally, I personally think that all local municipalities should be abolished, and replaced with one single government for the entire county. This has been done in other parts of the U.S., with good results. The economies of scale would save local taxpayers millions of dollars every year.
Short of that, a county-wide sales tax designated to support cities and boroughs is the most practical short-term alternative.
Maybe we should get county residents, rather than local property owners to pay for sidewalks in Quarryville too!!!!
Maybe lancaster City needs to re-evaluate the number of tax exempt properties (Convention Center/Marriott is the prime example) and establish a fairer tax base to begin with.
Lets be clear no one but the city has annexed properties from the surrounding townships into the city tax base ( Park City, Red Rose Commons, Berle Industries, The Armstrong land the Costco and Donnelly properties) and it still can not meet the payroll of the city.
The problem for Lancaster city is a mess with a lot of tax exempt businesses that were given a break to move into the city and who are not paying taxes, as well as over 200 non profit organizations who have taken up residence in the city. The city is in a one way slide and poor planning by the past city administrations going back many many years is now catching up with what is left in the city, which is not much.
Stop blaming the county government for the trouble in the city. If you took the county people out of the city, you would have hardly anyone coming to the city on a daily basis.