Luzerne County tax break vote timing up in the air for Bluecup project

Due to a number of other pending matters, Luzerne County Council may not consider a Wilkes-Barre Township real estate tax break extension request until March, Council Chairman Jimmy Sabatino said Tuesday.

Developer Bluecup Ventures LLC had asked County Council in December to extend the required deadline to commence construction of its warehousing and distribution center. In response, a County Council majority chose to wait and see how Township Council responded to the same request.

County Council now has its answer because a Township Council majority voted Monday to grant the extension.

Each jurisdiction — county, school, and municipal — decides whether to grant breaks on real estate taxes under its control. The Wilkes-Barre Area School Board had already approved an extension.

Sabatino said County Council already has a busy agenda planned for its Feb. 10 meeting, and the second meeting of the month on Feb. 24 will be largely consumed by the county manager’s required annual state-of-the-county report and two presentations from the Pennsylvania Economy League about finances and operations as part of a grant-funded analysis.

“Nobody has asked for it to be back on the agenda at this time,” Sabatino said of the tax break extension request.

Sabatino said he was not aware of a set deadline for County Council to decide because his understanding is that the required date to commence construction in the county’s tax break agreement had already expired in March 2025, or three years after the County Council’s initial March 2022 approval of the break.

The developer is seeking an extension to the end of 2027, arguing it was powerless to proceed with construction during the three-year period due to several court appeals related to the project zoning.

All three taxing bodies had approved a blighted-property tax break for the Bluecup project that would provide 65% tax forgiveness on new construction for a decade.

The 11-member County Council’s 2022 tax break approval for Bluecup was unanimous, but only two of those Council members are currently seated — LeeAnn McDermott and John Lombardo.

During public comment in December, township resident Cynthia Dorzinsky asked if County Council has the option to “start all over again from square one” in considering the tax break itself since the three-year requirement has lapsed.

County Chief Solicitor Harry W. Skene had said County Council can agree to the extension or reject it and renegotiate the tax break.

Lombardo had said he believes County Council should at least bring the extension to a vote to determine if the request is granted or denied.

During past discussions about tax breaks in general, county officials have pointed out that rejection by the county would not prevent developers from receiving breaks approved by the other taxing bodies for school and municipal real estate taxes.

Bluecup has estimated the three taxing bodies would collectively receive $840,000 annually during the tax break period. After that, it projected the taxing bodies would receive a combined $2 million in tax revenue annually from the project accessible on Johnson Street off Route 309.