Civil Rights, Inc.

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Clement Wragge, an Australian meteorologist, was a pioneer in the naming of hurricanes and other tropical storms. In the early 20th century, Wragge began using names for cyclones, drawing inspiration from Greek mythology and notable figures, to improve communication and tracking. His system was an early attempt to bring clarity to storm warnings, which was crucial for maritime and agricultural communities. Although his method was initially limited in scope and not universally adopted, it laid the groundwork for the modern system of naming hurricanes, which today helps in efficient storm tracking and public awareness.

Per Bert Crystle

[…] I felt empty and frustrated at how much time I spent on my iPhone. So I spent the last five years steadily stripping my phone down to the basics. Social media was the first to go, then email, then news apps, and then even internet browsers. Each step was more liberating than the first, and the incessant itch to check my phone shrank smaller and smaller. And yet, it didn’t disappear entirely. I was still checking the weather at least 15 times a day, since it was one of the few things left on the phone. Even when there’s almost nothing on it, the smartphone is hard to ignore.

I long pondered switching to a flip phone, but I always found an excuse to stay. Ultimately it was two of my students, 15- and 18-year-old sisters, who pushed me over the edge. Word spread around school that they had bought flip phones. I didn’t need to hear any more, especially considering that I teach a class on purpose and community where we specifically look at how our phones can get in the way of both. If they were brave enough to take the plunge, I could, too.

I spent $9 on a flip phone, plus $120 for a year of unlimited talk and text on a new number. For the last five months, I haven’t carried an iPhone with me, just my flip phone.

Predictably, it’s inconvenient to have a flip phone, which is kind of the point. Most of the inconveniences turn out to be quite lovely. Texting is terribly slow, so instead you call people and have a delightful stream of five-minute phone conversations throughout the day. You get restaurant recommendations from conversations with your neighbors, rather than through Yelp. You don’t scroll while in line at the grocery store, and instead talk to the person helping you check out. (You’d probably talk to the other people in line, too, but 9 times out of 10, they are on their phones.) You study maps at home before driving somewhere new, and then see what happens. You even get a bit lost, and it’s great.

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This is the charming, romantic side of owning a flip phone: more conversations, more eye contact, more connection. And it is my primary joy in making the switch. My favorite example of this happened at my son’s school. To sign your kid out each day, you scan a QR code. Without my iPhone, I worked it out with the administrator that I could stop by the school office and they would manually sign him out for me. Each school day, I now have a friendly chat with two school employees whom I had never met before.

The separation between work and life is much more noticeable. I don’t overthink work emails all day, since I no longer carry my work email in my pocket. And I’m so much more IRL, finally free of the smog of internet conversation. I am slow to get breaking news, and the enraging commentary surrounding it, and I’m definitely way less anxious because of it.

Best of all is my new relationship with silence. With a smartphone, I almost never experienced it. I always used the smartphone to listen to a podcast or music, or I might be watching something in the background or just scrolling. Without a smartphone always within reach, I am instead in my own head more, and my thoughts now have the time and space to roam freely. My internal life feels so much richer and robust. I am living more like my creative, curious, phone-free children.

This all sounds wonderful because it is wonderful. And now it’s confession time: I haven’t completely ripped off the Band-Aid. I still have my iPhone.

As it turns out, our addiction to smartphones is not just on an individual level. Intentionally or not, we have built structures that depend upon smartphone access, making it an essential feature of modern life. While most of the flip phone inconveniences are charming, some of them are so frustrating that they make you want to pull your hair out. We have app-ified society so thoroughly that we often end up in a cul-de-sac of logistics, and the only path forward is on a smartphone app.

For example: At my nearby grocery store, there are sales you can get with your frequent-buyer card, and then there are even better sales, mind-blowingly good sales, but to get those, you need to scan the product’s bar code into the store’s app. No smartphone = no app = no big savings. Annoying.

I don’t want to bring a smartphone to the grocery store, or my kids’ soccer practice, or anywhere for that matter. But it feels like I can’t leave it behind, because apps make the world go round.

The most extreme example of this came from a minor car collision. A car bumped into me in a parking lot, leaving a dent and a scratch. I swapped contact information with the other driver (my flip phone number, of course), and the next day, their insurance agent texted me a link to download their company app so I could post pictures of the damage. No such option with my flip phone.

I tried workarounds. I took photos with an actual camera, uploaded them to my computer, and typed the lengthy URL that the agent kept texting me into my web browser. Absurd, and also ineffective. When I finally did speak to the agent after calling for a week straight, she was in shock that I was using a flip phone. She had no other solution for how I could get paid for the damage without uploading photos through the app. After two Kafkaesque weeks of bureaucratic runaround, I conceded and used my smartphone to finish the claim.

I will continue to use a flip phone as my primary phone so I don’t have to carry an iPhone with me. And I will continue to evangelize for it. I hope many others get flip phones. We will all be better for it. If nothing else, it’ll be nice to have more people to talk to in the grocery line.

Fox & Friends for Lancaster County NAACP Lancaster, PA
Janet Diaz Saca Lancaster
Lancaster County Democratic Committee

[…] the center of Lancaster County is a 7-square-mile city that’s long been a hub for commercial, civic and social activity. Lancaster is the focal point of a thriving tourism economy, the county’s legal community, and essential health care and social services agencies.

But those activities don’t translate into lots of tax revenue to fund the city’s essential services, from public safety to water and sewer service to parks and recreation.

City government is projected to run an $18 million budget deficit in 2029 unless it raises taxes, cuts spending or both. A recent fiscal analysis conducted by Philadelphia-based consultant Public Financial Management showed a deficit as high as $10 million by next year without action.

Current and past city leaders often have worried about how the city would continue to pay its bills given the constraints placed on it by state law. As a third class city, Lancaster can impose little in the way of income taxes on residents and must instead rely heavily on taxing properties.

Revenue generated by property taxes accounts for less than half of Lancaster’s $73 million annual budget, bringing in $32.5 million. The rest of the budget is supported by a mix of income taxes, fees and grants.

The fiscal challenge is compounded by the fact that there are nearly 700 tax-exempt properties scattered across the city, according to the most recent available data from 2022. That includes properties that provide some form of public good to the community, such as churches, nonprofits, hospitals, schools and even cemeteries. The parcels comprise 30% of Lancaster’s land mass and, together, are valued at $1 billion, according to the city.

Flourish logoA Flourish map
If the tax-exempt parcels were taxed, the added revenue could balance the city’s budget, at least in the short run. But the city has never taxed these properties, so it’s not something Mayor Danene Sorace even mentions when she discusses the city’s fiscal problems.

“I don’t even think about it when I put the budget together,” she said.

An LNP | LancasterOnline review of city tax records shows about 170 tax-exempt properties house religious institutions, 94 properties are nonprofits that provide shelters and educational resources to the community, and 73 properties are recreational spaces, such as parks and walking trails.

Largest tax-exempt properties

Here's a list of the largest tax-exempt properties in the city by assessed value as of 2022.

Lancaster General Hospital, 519 N. Duke St.: $117,185,600
n Wickersham Elementary School and J.P. McCaskey High School, 401 N. Reservoir St.: $59,893,700
Lancaster County Convention Center, 25 S. Queen St: $59,660,800
Franklin & Marshall College, 600 College Ave.: $53,523,400
Lancaster Marriott, Penn Square, 25 S. Queen St.: $52,320,200
Lancaster County Prison, 625 E. King St.: $47,127,400
Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, 534 N. Christian St.: $26,286,700
Lancaster County Courthouse, 50 N. Duke St.: $22,415,000
Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, 750 E. King St.: $19,122,400
Lancaster County Youth Intervention Center, 235 Circle Ave.: $14,051,600
And many tax-exempt parcels are owned by local governments, like the Lancaster County Prison on East King Street, not to mention City Hall and the county courthouse.

City Properties 3.jpg
The Lancaster County Prison at 625 E. King St. is a tax-exempt building in Lancaster city as viewed on Monday, June 24, 2024.
SUZETTE WENGER | Staff Photographer
Residents would have more control around city decisions, laws under home rule charter
Local News
Residents would have more control around city decisions, laws under home rule charter
Payments in lieu of taxes
Lancaster does get some revenue from tax-exempt property owners who volunteer to make payments in lieu of taxes, commonly known as PILOT payments. Last year, the city collected $2.2 million through its PILOT program that Tina Campbell, the city’s director of administrative finances, said went straight to the city’s general account to support services such as road maintenance and firefighting.

City staffers send out a letter every year asking property owners to consider joining the PILOT program by paying at least 30% of what their organization would have paid if their property were taxed. Just 25 entities donate, or about 3.6% of the tax-exempt properties, according to the latest available data from 2022 provided by the city.

Most are religious institutions, though major contributors include Lancaster General Health, Franklin & Marshall College and the city’s Redevelopment Authority, which makes annual payments under a 2017 agreement with the city related to the Marriott Hotel Penn Square. The Redevelopment Authority’s donations are required to grow every year.

Top PILOT donors

Here are the top contributors to the city's Payment in Lieu of Taxes program as of 2022.

Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health: $1.5 million
Redevelopment Authority of the City of Lancaster: $398,616.11
Franklin & Marshall College: $185,797
Lancaster City Housing Authority: $60,805
Redevelopment Authority of York: $32,827.35
Jaycee HDC Inc.: $30,000
Ross Street United Methodist Church donated $800 in 2022, which pastor Fran Keller said is as much as a small congregation can provide, though the church contributes in other ways, such as hosting a free food giveaway every month.

Water Street Mission gave $12,000 each in PILOT payments to the city and the School District of Lancaster in 2022, which collects its own share of property taxes. Matt Clement, marketing director for the homeless shelter, said the nonprofit wants to have a strong relationship with the city to best serve the community.

“We’re not in a situation where we’ve been in the red the past few fiscal years, so thankfully God’s provided for us and we’re able to be where we need to be,” Clement said. “We just feel like it’s kind of the least we can do to honor (the city) for all of the support that they give us.”

Becoming tax exempt

The Lancaster County Board of Assessment Appeals meets monthly to make determinations on tax-exempt status for properties across the county. According to its website, entities seeking an exemption must submit a letter of request as well as documentation to prove the charitable status of the building.

A handful of city residents also receive tax-exempt status because they are disabled veterans. That decision is also made by the board of assessment appeals.

Right now, city officials are brainstorming ways to advance the PILOT program to draw in more voluntary payments, Campbell said. As it stands, staff wait for a response from letter recipients and don’t reconnect until the next year when a new letter is sent out. Campbell thinks there may be room to squeeze out a few more dollars by sitting down face to face with owners of tax-exempt properties to better explain the program and answer questions.

Supporting essential services is a crucial part of the city’s pitch to tax-exempt entities to participate in the PILOT program. Property owners benefit from police, fire and maintenance services, Campbell said, even if they aren’t required to pay for them through taxes.

“It feels like if we can get the word out more about that, then people will realize it’s not that we’re just trying to tax for the sake of taxes. There’s really services behind them,” she said.

What tax breaks are on the table for low-income Lancaster city residents under home rule?
Local News
What tax breaks are on the table for low-income Lancaster city residents under home rule?
Many small churches and nonprofits don’t participate in the PILOT program because they simply don’t have room in their budgets. The same is true for some of the city’s largest properties. Kevin Malloy, executive director of the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority, said its budget regularly runs a deficit for the purpose of boosting local tourism.

The convention center, the third-highest assessed property in Lancaster at $59.6 million, contracts an outside company to conduct regular reports of its economic impact on the city and county. The most recent pre-pandemic study found the convention center generated $34 million in revenue for city businesses over a four-year period, Malloy said.

“What goes around comes around, because we use every nickel for people to come here,” Malloy said. “Our mission is to give back, and it’s not about making a profit for ourselves.”

City Properties 11.jpg
The Marriott, left, sits next to the Lancaster County Convention Center, 25 S. Queen St. which is a tax-exempt building in Lancaster city as viewed on Monday, June 24, 2024.
SUZETTE WENGER | Staff Photographer
Home rule as the only option
City leaders have different ideas for how to boost revenue from property taxes. Maybe that’s approving more real estate redevelopment projects to grow the city’s tax base, City Council member John Hursh suggested, or applying pressure to owners of large untaxed parcels to offer some kind of PILOT donation, council Vice President Jaime Arroyo said.

Sorace is skeptical of the city’s ability to find more creative ways to grow revenue with the tools it has available now, like its PILOT program.

“It’s a completely voluntary program. Because it’s completely voluntary, there’s not much more in the way that we can increase the amount of PILOT payments except to continue to raise awareness of revenue in the city, but most people really don’t think about the costs of services they’re relying on,” she said.

Again and again, officials come back to home rule. With state law limiting how cities can generate tax revenue, city leaders are rolling the dice on getting voters to approve a home rule charter as soon as the November election.

“I’m pretty adamant that we need a home rule charter and not just any one: We need a really good one that doesn’t put a burden on property owners to carry the revenue,” Arroyo said. “I hope (this) is a reality check for everyone involved.”

With home rule, the city could increase income taxes, which are currently capped at 1.1%. Nearly half of the city’s income tax revenue currently goes to Lancaster schools. This year, Lancaster will take in just $9.2 million in earned income tax, less than one-third of what real estate taxes bring in.

A home rule charter can’t change anything about tax exemptions, meaning it can’t force churches or nonprofits to start paying up to support the city. But the city doesn’t see that as its focus. With just a small bump in the local income tax, the city could bring in millions more without adversely affecting low-income property owners again and again, Campbell said.

Elected home rule commissioners are eager to see their work pay off in time to prevent a major deficit. They’re ready to introduce residents to a new plan for the city that they say opens doors for revenue growth that doesn’t force officials to keep scraping the bottom of the barrel.

“All we can do is focus on the things we can change,” Commissioner John McGrann said. “The 30% tax-exempt real estate and PILOT is unlikely to change in a meaningful way, and I don’t want to continue to rely on property tax as the primary source of revenue.” […] —30—

Reporter Nate Willison contributed to this report. His work is funded by the Lancaster County Local Journalism Fund. For more information, or to make a contribution, please visit lanc.news/
supportlocaljournalism.

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