A Pennsylvania law firm will continue its role as Lehighton Area School District’s delinquent property tax collector after the school board voted Monday night to extend the nine-year relationship.

Portnoff Law Associates has sent a representative to two board workshops over the last few months making a pitch to continue working for Lehighton, where managing attorney Kevin Buraks has said delinquent accounts have dropped by 40% since 2015. During that time, he added, Portnoff has collected $8.2 million in past-due taxes for the district.

Director Barbara Bowes said Monday night she was swayed by Portnoff’s willingness to work with taxpayers on payment plans and hardship situations as opposed to the Carbon County Tax Claim Bureau, who the district had used in the past.

“I did some more research after the last meeting and the fact that the tax claim bureau doesn’t offer you anything like Portnoff does was really an eye opener,” Bowes said. “The bureau sends you a few letters and then wants to sell your property. I think it would be better this year to go with Portnoff.”

Though board members voted to extend Portnoff, the majority said they want to see a monthly report of the firm’s activity. That was welcome news to district resident Dennis Blocker, who has questioned the decision to keep using Portnoff over the last few months.

“I do agree we need a summary of what they do each month,” Blocker said. “Taxpayers need to know how much money is outstanding. I feel when people owe a tax, that money is due. When we go out to a restaurant, at the end of the meal we pay for it. We can’t just keep putting it off and putting it off.”

In terms of how it makes its money, Portnoff funnels all fees for their work to the delinquent taxpayer. The only cost to the district, which is one it eventually gets back if the delinquent account is paid, is for the initial letter to the homeowner and the associated postage to send it.

Burks said Portnoff was paid $40,962 in fees from Lehighton taxpayers last year associated with its delinquent collection.

Lehighton weighed having someone in-house take on the responsibility, but directors said the job duties would take up more time, and cost it more money, than the district could afford.

“If we had someone here do it, they’d have to come up with a plan and put something in place for hardship situations,” board member Jeremy Glaush said. “It wouldn’t be a part-time job.”

Superintendent Dr. Christina Fish said earlier this month the district likely couldn’t hire someone to do the job for $40,000, which is nearly the amount of fees Portnoff collected from delinquent taxpayers last year.

Director Kerry Sittler said she’d rather see Lehighton’s funds used on line items that have a direct benefit to students.

“That is money we could spend on teachers or curriculum,” she said before voting to extend Portnoff on Monday.

While Portnoff has the job of collecting delinquent property taxes for now, Lehighton left the door open for changes in the future.

“If something better comes along next year,” Bowes said, “that might be something to go with. But for right now, I think this is our best option.”