Girardville Plans to Implement New Tax on Skill Machines

Girardville plans to implement a new tax on Pennsylvania Skill games.

At their regular meeting on Wednesday, Borough Council members OK’d the first reading of an ordinance that sets the tax rate on Pennsylvania Skill machines at $250 per unit.

Originally, a draft of the ordinance had set the rate at $1,000 per location that hosts Pennsylvania Skill machines but council members voted to change that to $250 per machine. The tax only applies to machines at retail and other commercial locations, not any at a non-profit organization.

Council members believe there are only two locations in Girardville that this tax would apply to but there are between 15-20 machines between those two shops, meaning it could generate about $5,000 in tax revenue.

The ordinance also sets a tax rate of $50 for a jukebox and $100 for a mechanical amusement device, for something like a pinball machine.

Other New Ordinances Pending

Girardville is also planning to adopt several other new ordinances in the future.

Council discussed what it’s calling a Non-Owner-Occupied Registration, essentially a registration for rental properties. If it’s adopted as it was discussed on Wednesday, rental property owners would have to register their buildings at $125 per year.

The rental properties will be required to be inspected annually and the owner must have a representative or manager living within 30 miles of it.

A vacant property registration ordinance is also in the works. This would require owners of vacant properties to pay a registration fee. The fee would be based on how much work is being done to the property while it’s vacant.

Neither of these potential ordinances was acted upon at Wednesday’s meeting.

Subscribe to Coal Region Canary

Get email updates from Coal Region Canary by becoming a subscriber today. Just enter your email address below to get started!

Support Coal Region Canary

Like our reporting and want to support truly local news in Schuylkill County? Your small donations help. For as little as $5, your contribution will allow us to cover more news that directly affects you. Consider donating today by hitting the big yellow button below ...