SHAMOKIN - A city official is hopeful the first full year of enforcement of an ordinance monitoring rental properties will create new revenue for the financially strapped city.
In the last quarter of 2011, when the landlord-tenant ordinance was enforced, $1,634 in revenue was generated.
Rick Bozza, code enforcement officer, said he hoped enforcement of the ordinance in 2012 would generate at least three times that, or about $4,900.
That amount is a drop in the bucket of the city's $2.5 million operating budget. However, that budget was eventually balanced after it began in the hole $375,000, and the city is still maintaining property taxes above the highest allowable amount, under emergency pretense.
Needless to say, any new revenue is good for Shamokin's financial health.
The landlord-tenant ordinance mandates, among other issues, that all Shamokin landlords obtain a $25 annual license registering each of their rental properties, and that they identify all tenants of each rented unit.
Deadline for city landlords to register rental units is Feb. 15.
The ordinance was enacted last summer and took effect in August under a prorated fee of $12.50 per license.
New names to tax rolls
Since it requires tenant registration information - information that will be shared with the city treasurer - Bozza said additional tax revenue could be realized as new names are added to the tax rolls.
Tenant registration information must be updated whenever a new person moves into or out of a rental unit.
The ordinance also calls for a property manager to be designated for any rental property where the owner lives more than 20 miles from Shamokin. That person would be the direct point of contact for the city, including for disruptive conduct by the tenants and in case of emergency.
Fines of $100 to $500 could be assessed for each offense, including a fine for each day a landlord operates a rental unit in violation of the ordinance.
There is no fee for empty rental units, and the ordinance does not apply to hotels and motels, hospitals and nursing homes, tax-exempt organizations and units rented to a landlord's immediate family provided that no more than two additional unrelated individuals occupy the dwelling unit.