HARRISBURG – Allegheny County Sen. Wayne Fontana says he will soon be introducing a bill to allow municipalities to further incentivize building construction, improvements, or conversions by granting tax abatement for up to 20 years. In a co-sponsorship memo circulated to senators, Fontana noted how his bill would amend the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance Act or LERTA by extending the time period allowed for municipalities to grant tax abatement from 10 to 20 years. The LERTA law was originally passed by the General Assembly in 1977 to provide tax breaks to encourage economic development by abating property taxes on the assessed value of improvements made to existing buildings or land, but the 10-year limit has not been updated in those 47 years. Fontana added that the LERTA program continues to spur development across the Commonwealth, as it has over the last four decades. His bill takes a successful program and supercharges it to help address our current needs.
SEN. WAYNE FONTANA