Attorneys for RCR Yachts and Bay Harbor Marina are expected to appear before the Erie County Board of Tax Assessment Appeals in separate filings Wednesday.
Both are seeking tax exempt status under a recent court ruling concerning the Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority.
Those attorneys believe that the ruling, which concerns the Intermodal Center, allows for a business leasing to the Port Authority to go under the Authority's tax exempt umbrella if it can prove it provides a core service to the Port.
Bay Harbor is arguing that a marina is essential to the Port and RCR is arguing that their business of selling, moving and storing boats provides the same necessity.
"We clearly fit the mission of the Port," RCR CEO Don Fickle told us. "We can't be three miles in. We have to be near the water."
On another front both operations are appealing the assessed value of their properties in light of a recent jump that assessment.
Onlookers believe that if the tax exempt case fails then all sides could still negotiate a tax schedule.
The City of Erie and the Erie School District have voiced opposition to approving the tax exempt petitions, as has the Port Authority in a letter to the Board on Friday.
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