Greensburg officials eager to start work through tax-break initiative

A new Greensburg tax break and development program has taken effect, and officials say they don't plan to wait around for projects to roll in before getting to work.

Westmoreland County commissioners voted in favor of the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance program — known as LERTA — on Thursday, joining Greensburg City Council and the Greensburg Salem School Board, which approved it this week.

All three voting bodies needed to agree on the plan before it could take effect.

The program lets property owners keep 25 percent of the taxes they would normally pay on improvements they make to dilapidated commercial or industrial properties in Greensburg for 10 years. They would pay 10 percent in taxes as normal and pay 65 percent into what officials are calling the “G-Fund,” which will be controlled by the Greensburg Community Development Corp. to use for additional rehabilitation projects.

The goal of the program is to encourage development on two fronts: attracting private developers through tax breaks and rehabilitating the city, said city administrator Sue Trout.

“We're hoping we can use it as a development tool to entice developers downtown,” Trout said. “If we can get 10 projects in the next 10 years, that would be amazing.”

A board of advisers from all three taxing bodies and the development corporation will control the G-Fund, which will be bolstered by other sources beyond the fees developers pay, said Steve Gifford, executive developer of the development corporation. He is looking for ways to give it a jump-start.

“If we just wait for LERTA projects to come on board, it's going to be a slow build to a balance that would have a positive impact, so we're going to go to private and public funding sources and ask for grants and donations to build the fund,” Gifford said.

The program is open to applicants for 10 years. Members of the advisory board will spend the next few months crafting applications and discussing the most effective ways to spend the G-Fund.

“We're going to sit down and see what's the priority,” Gifford said.

Restoring dilapidated residential property is one possible use for the fund, according to Gifford. Trout said the fund can be used to renovate areas that are already attracting private development, to create a ripple effect and spur even more improvements.

Jacob Tierney is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-6646 or jtierney@tribweb.com.