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PLAINS TWP. — In a brief hearing Thursday morning before the Luzerne County Board of Tax Assessment Appeals, attorneys from both Wilkes-Barre Area School District and Mohegan Sun Pocono agreed to let a dispute over the value of the casino go straight to court.
School District Solicitor Ray Wendolowski said both sides had basically agreed beforehand not to present evidence to the appeals board, and to simply ask the board to deny their appeals. Assuming the board does so, the next step is to take the case to the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas.
That’s almost certainly where it would have ended up anyway, Wendolowski said. “It’s very rare you get something settled at the appeals board level on a case this complex.”
Tax assessment value of the casino has been a question mark from the start. When the two sides couldn’t agree on an assessment figure, they hammered out a deal that let the casino owners, Connecticut-based Downs Racing LP, pay a flat rate each year, unconnected to any property improvements.
That deal expired at the end of 2015. All told, the casino paid $2.9 million to the three property-taxing bodies involved — the school district, the county and Plains Township. The school district got $2.01 million of that.
Luzerne County calculated a new assessment value for this year, set at $152.5 million. That upped total property taxes to $3.71 million, with $2.57 million for the district. The casino owners appealed that amount, saying it was too high, while the district appealed on grounds it was too low.
While Thursday’s hearing became a brief formality rather than a protracted presentation of evidence, it was legally the first needed step in settling the dispute, Wendolowski said.
