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By DAVID J. RALIS; Times Leader Staff Writer
Thursday, March 19, 1998 Page: 3A
WILKES-BARRE- In January 1997, Huls America Inc. won a five-year fight with
Luzerne County to lower its taxes.
But it took the county until Wednesday to rebate nearly $35,000 in taxes
the former Wright Township company overpaid in 1992, ’93 and ’94. The
commissioners unanimously approved the refund with no comment.
Their decision came less than two weeks after the company’s attorney,
Stephen Howard of Lansdale, wrote a letter threatening legal action for the
county’s failure to pay up.
In the letter, Howard said he would ask a judge to have the county pay his
bill, rather than his client.
“I told them they’re in violation of the court order,” Howard said. “I’ve
had a couple other cases up there, and unless you corner them, they do
nothing.”
Ed Brominski, director of the Assessor’s Office, said he was unaware of the
case or the delay. Ditto for Mike Kostelansky, solicitor for the Board of
Assessment Appeals, who said the case was handled by his predecessor, Mike
Butera.
Butera, now solicitor for the Treasurer’s Office, could not be reached for
comment.
A public file on the court case was unavailable Wednesday. Someone in the
assessor’s office signed it out of the Prothonotary’s Office on Sept. 9,
records show.
A docket book shows then-Court of Common Pleas Judge Correale Stevens ruled
in favor of Huls on Jan. 24, 1997, lowering the assessment on the factory in
the Crestwood Industrial Park from $572,230 to $376,500. Stevens has since
been elected to the state Superior Court.
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