New Tax Deadline Dawns on Lancaster

By the time you read this, the Lancaster City Council probably will already have met today.

The council members, city attorney, manager and clerk--who normally meet at 7 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of the month--had to meet at 5:45 a.m. to beat a deadline and enable Lancaster to collect $68,000 in new redevelopment taxes next year.

The council voted 3 to 0 Monday to create a city redevelopment area of almost 1,350 acres that could generate up to $750 million in tax revenue over its planned 40-year life span.

The trouble was that a state law requires a second vote--at least five days after the first vote--before the city can collect the money. A state regulation requires that to begin collecting the money in 1993, the vote must take place before Dec. 1.

That might have left them time to do it Monday. But no meeting was scheduled and Mayor George Root, two council members and the city manager were signed up to attend the National League of Cities conference today in New Orleans. The only solution was the predawn meeting before a 9 a.m. flight.

Root said he set his coffee maker for 4 a.m., and there won’t be time for a second cup at the meeting, which was expected to last less than 10 minutes.

“We got out of sync in our timing,” Root said. “I don’t know anyone that would want to meet that early intentionally.”