Lehighton manager defends tax collector

Several weeks after a Lehighton Area School District official dubbed Portnoff Law Associates’ delinquent real estate tax collection method as “predatory,” the district’s business office presented statistics during Tuesday night’s finance committee meeting that show the amount of delinquent taxes turned over has decreased over the past five years.

At a Feb. 24 board meeting, Lehighton Director David Bradley asked the board “to stop authorizing Portnoff to use every legal avenue possible” to get property owners to turn over delinquent real estate taxes.

“We pulled the reports from 2014 to 2019 that show what was turned over and what was charged in attorney fees,” Lehighton Business Administrator Patricia Denicola said. “Over half of the people placed into collection had no attorney fees. There have also been less and less delinquent taxes turned over. It went from $1.5 million in 2015 to $999,000 for the 2019-20 school year.”

Denicola said an improved local economy may be part of the reason for the improvement, as well as a drop in large balances from several large commercial properties.

“I don’t think Portnoff is doing anything differently on their end,” she said. “They start with sending a certified letter to the taxpayer and a lot of people pay at that point. Portnoff charges a roughly $40 fee for those services. It wouldn’t be until it gets further along that someone would have to deal with the higher legal fees from them.”

In February, Bradley said he went to the Carbon County prothonotary’s office and printed out 24 pages of legal action filed by Portnoff against district taxpayers with outstanding balances. Some of the past due bills, he added, were as small as $50.

“I was actually surprised at how low the past due dollar average is,” Bradley said. “This creates an added burden against the very individuals who make up our district. You don’t use a sledgehammer to get a nickel. The sledgehammer is more expensive than the nickel.”

Denicola said Portnoff has a history of working with property owners who have fallen behind in an effort to get their accounts current.

On Tuesday, Bradley took issue with administration and his fellow board members for not knowing the total amount of tax parcels in the district.

“If I don’t have the number from the courthouse, I will not give you one because you will then say we misrepresented it and say we lied because the number was incorrect,” Denicola told Bradley. “That’s why you are not getting the information you demand as a surprise every meeting.”