Mohegan Sun Pocono casino, in Plains Township PA. could see an 0,000 bump in its local tax bill after an assessment made by Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County.
The assessment sets the property’s value at above $152 million and was released by Luzerne County Manager David Pedri.
According to the local Citizen’s Voice newspaper, the increase would go mostly to the Wilkes-Barre Area School District, which could see about $562,000 more in revenue under the tax rate proposed by the district for the 2016-17 fiscal year. The school board has not yet passed the 2016-17 budget and accompanying tax increase.
Luzerne County could also see about $223,000 more in property taxes, and Plains Township, where the casino is located, would see about $9,000 more under the assessment.
The casino has the option to appeal the assessment, which has been underway for almost a decade. The entertainment and casino complex has paid a payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT, for years after a court-ordered settlement following a tax assessment appeal, according to the Voice.
In 2006, Wilkes-Barre Area School District challenged the assessment for the racetrack parcel from the years 2002 through 2006 and for the entire complex, starting from 2007. A settlement of the case set assessments for several parcels of the complex and ordered that there would be no change in the assessments through 2015.
Under the settlement, the casino paid $2.9 million last year to the three taxing bodies with $2.01 million going to the Wilkes-Barre Area School District; $653,360 going to the county and $261,460 to Plains Township. Those figures would equal an assessment of about $113 million, the paper said.
However, the site has been expanded since 2006 and now offers table games and includes a seven-story hotel and convention center.
An assessment from appraisers Media-based Coyle, Lynch and Company put the value of four parcels of property that make up the complex at $152,529,300. That figure includes the value of land and improvements on four parcels: the casino and racetrack, the adjacent hotel and two vacant lots, according to the Voice.
The complex includes a harness track and casino on 263 acres of land, as well as a hotel inside the property added in 2013. The facility is home to restaurants, bars and shopping as well as gambling tables, a grandstand, stables and 2,300 slot machines, according to the appraisal. The complex also includes several other buildings, such as an executive office building, barn, dormitories, blacksmith shop and others.
