Rejected tax exemptions

BUSHKILL — About 60 Homestead Tax exemptions granted to Pike County landowners have been rejected by the East Stroudsburg Area School District which is seeking reimbursement of at least $25,000. The applications for the exemption were filed for lots that did not contain either a farm or a home. The Homestead/Farmstead Exemption law attempts to provide relief from rising school property taxes to the state’s homeowners and farmers underwritten by revenue from state gaming revenue. “This was the first year for the Homestead/Farmstead exemption,” said Dawn Contreras, Pike County Manager of Assessment this week. “People seem to have filed for the exemption without reading the whole application,” she added. The school district is sending out new tax bills for $408 apiece to recoup the mistakenly granted exemptions. Contreras does not believe the faulty exemption applications were filled on purpose. “Mostly they seem to have been mistakes,” she said. “Ones I’ve talked to said, ‘Oh no ! I didn’t realize it.’ ” when Contreras pointed out that exemptions were only granted for land with homes or farms located on it. The errors were discovered when the Pike County Assessment Office reviewed the applications to make sure the properties actually contained dwellings. The homestead exemption is part of the Taxpayer Relief Act, which went into effect last year. “We are fixing the problems now, saving them from from themselves,” Contreras said good naturedly, but she cautioned that in the future applicants will be held legally liable for incorrect applications. The law provides for a fine of up to $2,500, for a person who willfully applies for a homestead or farmstead exemption to which they are not entitled. Property tax relief is funded by a combination of state revenue from gaming and dedicated local income taxes. Under a homestead property tax exclusion, the assessed value of each home is reduced by the same amount before the property tax is computed. In this case the amount exempted was $408 per homestead At the November meeting of the East Stroudsburg Area School Board, business manager Len Kresefski announced that the exemption had been wrongly granted. The application specifically asks “Do you use this property as your primary residence” and only those who answer “yes” are considered for the exemption.