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Public commenter presses council to finish HUP testing and pursue unpaid taxes
Summary
At public comment, Mike Mancini urged the council to finalize HUP testing for nonprofit property-tax exemptions, asked why the University of Scranton has not responded, and proposed retroactive collections and a 3% hotel tax to raise local revenue.
At the council’s public-comment period, Mike Mancini said the city’s HUP testing process — used to determine whether nonprofits qualify for property-tax exemptions — "has been in limbo for years" and pressed the council to take immediate action to resolve outstanding exemptions and recover revenue where appropriate.
"To those who do not know what a HUP test is, it determines the ability of a nonprofit to pay property taxes," Mancini said. He questioned whether the University of Scranton had responded to inquiries and said the city's taxpayers are bearing an unfair burden if exempt properties are not properly vetted.
Mancini offered six recommendations, including finalizing HUP testing, retroactively collecting taxes where Commonwealth property-tax rules were violated and exploring a 3% hotel tax that he estimated could yield "about $3,000,000." He urged the council to "bring all parties to caucus ASAP."
Council members acknowledged the concern and asked staff to follow up: staff indicated they would gather information about the assessment correspondence and the list of properties that may be ineligible or unresponsive to assessor inquiries.
No formal action to change tax policy was taken at the meeting; members instead asked for staff follow-up and for the city's solicitor and administration to share any relevant documentation.
