By SUSAN BALDRIGE | Staff WriterEditor’s note: This story is part of a series examining the financial sustainability of the Columbia Borough School District and the impact of its struggling schools on the students, teachers, residents and businesses of the proud river town. A six-page special section was in the Sunday News.
Sara Linkous opened the doors of her china cabinet in her Columbia home to show a delicate green and white tea set that has been handed down from mother to daughter through three generations.
The family treasure will likely be gone soon, sold to pay property taxes on the stone home her father built in the 1930s.
In recent years, the 85-year-old, has had to sell all the coins her late husband, William, collected and the model train sets that her son, Chip, cherished until he passed away this year, to afford the $6,500 in school and borough property taxes on her house.
The teapot is one of the few things remaining.
Sara Linkous and her family teapot
Linkous loves the tea set, but she also believes in the schools. She believes in them so much that she serves on the school board and has voted for tax increases despite the sacrifices it will mean for her.
“We’re trying to do the best we can, give the kids good lunches and take care of them. These children are our future leaders,” Linkous said.
Nonetheless, her situation reflects the sometimes draconian pull of increasingly higher taxes on homeowners in the borough and the school district’s need for more money.
Realtor Jeff Seibert sells houses in Columbia
Realtor Jeff Seibert has heard it all before.
“How do you sell properties down there in Columbia when houses have $5,000 in taxes?” other real estate agents ask him all the time.
“It’s the higher taxes and the perceived quality of the schools that make it tough,” said Seibert, a real estate agent for Associates Real Estate Co. who lives and works in his hometown.
Not only are school taxes the highest in the county, but the borough’s property tax rate of 8 mills is one of the highest, too, second only behind Lancaster city. (If you want to check the tax rates in your municipality click here.
To demonstrate, Seibert turned to his multi-list of houses and found a house for sale for $198,000 in Columbia with a property tax bill of $6,100. A house at the same price has taxes of $4,407 in East Petersburg, while in neighboring Landisville, homeowners could buy a $300,000 house and have a tax payment of $5,212.
But Seibert said families have to shoulder some of the responsibilities for their kids who are in school in Columbia.
His own kids graduated from Columbia High School and went on to good colleges.
"Education starts at home," he said.
John Collier can't sell his house
John Collier is blunt.
"The taxes here suck,” said Collier, 71, a former borough councilman.
Collier has Parkinson’s Disease and points with his cane to the row house on 8th Street that he hasn’t been able to sell despite cutting the price several times.
The median listing price for a house in Lancaster County is $214,850 while the median list price for a home in Columbia is $115,200.
But with high property taxes and the school’s poor reputation, it is tough to sell houses here, even with lower prices.
A year ago, Collier listed his house, a brick charmer with a nicely groomed back yard, at $105,000. He lowered it to $94,900 and then to its current price of $89,900.
No offers.
The median time a home is on the market in Lancaster County is 33 days. In Columbia, at 58 days, it’s close to twice that.
While the prices are often more affordable than surrounding communities, that, too, sometimes causes issues, Seibert said. “We have a community of starter homes. People don’t stay in starter homes for long and they don’t always do the repairs.
Seibert said another problem with lower real estate prices are investors who swoop in and turn some of the big, historic houses into rental units.
“They are not paying enough in taxes to educate the children who live in those homes,” Seibert said.
BHI Properties set up shop in 2005 when a New York City investor in the company noticed how cheap housing was in the historic town.
Israel Weiss is managing the most rentals in Columbia
Israel Weiss is the manager of BHI. He said they now have 60-plus rentals.
Right now, BHI monthly rents are in the moderate $750 to $950 range, creating a waiting list in affordable housing-starved Lancaster County.
Weiss said his tenants are no different than homeowners and he doesn’t believe they add to the costs of education for the district any more than children whose parents own a house.
“It’s like a dog chasing his tail here,” Weiss said. “Taxes are high so factories, companies don’t want to come here to begin with and you can’t lower taxes without businesses relocating here.”
In 2003 the borough tried to slow the conversion of privately owned homes to rental properties by putting a moratorium on any increase in the number of dwelling units inside residential areas. Five years later it began requiring two parking spaces for residential properties.
Columbia zoning and planning officer Jeff Helm believes the moves helped, although he estimates the borough has 30 percent more rental units than it had 15 years ago.
Lance Crowl thinks Columbia should get help with its tax burden
Lance Crowl didn’t picture his retirement this way.
COLUMBIA: FAILING IN SLOW MOTION In the wake of the recession, Columbia's schools, economy and infrastructure are crumbling. If Lancaster County's poorest, most tax-strapped school district fails, what does it mean for all of us? Talk About This SeriesThe reporters who researched this story will be responding to your questions and talking about this series in the chat box below. Feel free to post your comments or questions at any point during the publication of this series or afterward. In This SeriesWEDNESDAY: How economic decline and big needs are battering the Columbia Borough School District THURSDAY: The struggle to keep pace: How one Columbia family survives | A look at poverty in the school district FRIDAY: Housing issues | A look at the Northend project SUNDAY: Economic development | Community spirit | Solutions | Meet the new superintendent MONDAY: Live on LancasterOnline: Town Hall discussion with the superintendent Note: The entire series will appear in print in the Sunday News. |
He and his wife are a year behind on their school and municipal property taxes of $3,288 for their semi-detached home in Columbia.
He stopped flipping houses for a living when the real estate market crashed in 2009. He and his wife, Cindy, are living on Social Security and retirement savings.
Crowl, 66, said he is on a payment plan and hopes to catch up on his tax bill this year. He got behind, he said, because he was a caretaker for family members with serious illnesses.
Crowl is not alone in the delinquent tax department.
Every year since 2005 in Columbia, there have been 250 to 300 tax delinquencies.
But Crowl is none too happy that lifelong Columbia residents have to shoulder such an enormous load, especially when the schools are failing.
The Crowls sent their children to private school for that very reason. They’ve even talked their grown children out of settling in their own hometown.
He said his daughter wanted to buy a house near a borough elementary school, but the tax bill would have been the same as the mortgage.
“There needs to be something uniform across the state, like a sales tax or something. The burden is too much for our borough,” Crowl said.
If there is a silver lining in all this, it is what residents say over and over again: that they feel a kinship to this once bustling borough, believing its struggles have brought people together and not pulled them apart.
Despite being unable to sell his home and having already moved into a retirement community, Collier has no intention of leaving Columbia — despite all its issues.
And for school board member Linkous, “I love this town.”
“When I was a young girl, all I wanted was to get out of this town. Now, all I want is to try and stay.”
