Washington County property owners have all of 2020 to pay taxes at face value
Due to financial strife experienced by Washington County taxpayers, the Washington County commissioners on Wednesday voted unanimously to do away with a six-month penalty period on county property taxes.
As the novel coronavirus pandemic hit the United States in March, the board extended the discount period through April 30.
County taxes could normally be paid at what is known as “face amount” through June 30, with a 10% penalty being added for those who paid property taxes from July 1 through Dec. 31.
This year, no penalties will be assessed for taxes paid in full during the remainder of this calendar year.
“As of March 31, the original end of the discount period, 61% of the total tax bills were paid,” said Joshua Hatfield, county finance director, who attended Wednesday’s teleconference meeting.
Six months’ worth of penalties would have brought in about $176,000 in revenue to the county, he said.
Pennsylvania Act 15, signed into law by the governor, formally gave taxing bodies the power to waive any fees or penalties on property taxes due to the pandemic.
The Courthouse Square office building, which houses the treasurer’s office, remains open to the public, but rather than dealing with a cashier, taxpayers have been asked to use a first-floor drop box installed in March.
Anyone with questions about tax payments can call the county treasurer’s office at 724-228-6780.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in Washington County was 6.7% in March 2020, identical to that of February 2016.
In the past decade, the unemployment rate in the county reached a peak of 10% in February 2010 during what has been called the Great Recession, and, with upticks during some months in a general downward trend, dipped to 3.5% in November 2018.
This is the first time in memory that county officials have abrogated tax penalties.
When Washington County was hard-hit by the closure of steel plants in the 1980s, then-Sheriff James “Fuzzy” Fazzoni declared a moratorium on sheriff’s sales of mortgage-foreclosed homes, a process separate from sales of properties sold for nonpayment of taxes.