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Luzerne County’s administration will pursue several strategies to generate additional revenue in 2019, county Manager C. David Pedri told citizens at his recent public forum.

One is a continued search for properties missed from the tax rolls, he said.

In June, the county had met a goal of finding enough overlooked properties to cover the $50,000 cost of software purchased from Rochester, N.Y.-based Pictometry International Corp. that detects missed property based on aerial photographs.

As of last week, the county had picked up $13.5 million in missed property by reviewing the Pictometry data, which equates to $80,900 in additional county tax revenue and hundreds of thousands of dollars more for impacted municipalities and school districts, he said.

Billboard revenue is another part of the plan, he said.

While researching a list of county-owned properties compiled last year, the administration identified eight parcels along highways that could house billboards.

One of the highest-traffic sites is off the Pittston Bypass, but this parcel may require the filing of a quiet title action to ensure the county’s ownership cannot be contested, Pedri said.

Once this matter is resolved, the administration wants to seek proposals from entities interested in leases to design, construct and operate billboards on county property, Pedri said.

An investment policy recently approved by county council also should yield new revenue, he said.

The administration recommended the policy to allow short-term investing of some real estate tax receipts that arrive in April but remain in non-interest checking accounts until the money is needed for debt repayments and other expenses at the end of the year.

Under the policy, chosen investments must guarantee the county money is safe and can be extracted without penalties if an emergency arises, he said.

“We’ll be super conservative in the first year,” Pedri said.

The final plan he cited was implementation of purchase or procurement cards, known as P-Cards, that are used by many governmental entities to simplify payments and streamline the accounts payable process.

Pedri said the administration plans to seek a public request for proposals in January from financial institutions interested in providing purchase cards to pay vendors for goods and services.

The county could receive 2- to 3 percent back on certain purchases, he told the citizens.

Payment authorization procedures similar to ones in place now would be implemented for the purchase cards, Pedri said.

“If we buy $20 million in items through the card, it could be a significant revenue generator,” Pedri said.

The billboards, purchase cards and Pictometry initiatives were recommended in the county’s five-year financial recovery plan, which was prepared by consultant Public Financial Management in 2015.

According to this plan, P-Cards are similar to a consumer credit card, but the user — in this case the county — must pay the bank or card issuer in full each month and has the ability to set a “wide variety of card controls where necessary.”

Pedri
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By Jennifer Learn-Andes

[email protected]

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.