A plan to tax cell towers in Butler County has been put on hold.

The county commissioners at their Wednesday meeting postponed a vote to hire a company to evaluate the 100 or so cell towers in the county and provide an amount the company thinks the county would bring in each year through a new tax.

Commissioners Chairman Leslie Osche said the county emergency services department is in negotiations with a company that owns eight of the 11 towers that currently hold equipment used by the 911 system.

A proposed contract with that company, Crown Castle, is on the table, so Osche hopes a deal will be signed in the next month or two.

“I am greatly concerned about how (the cell tower evaluation) might affect (those negotiations),” Osche said.

Commissioner Kevin Boozel then moved to set the issue aside until the emergency services department is finished negotiating for the tower contract.

Osche and Commissioner Kim Geyer voted to approve the postponement.

Chris Savage, the county's director of assessment, told the commissioners at their meeting last week that many other counties impose a cell tower tax.

The amount such a tax will bring in will not be known until an evaluation of the towers in the county is complete.

Osche explained on Thursday that a 2005 Commonwealth Court ruling made certain towers taxable, and that Butler County has not yet taken advantage of that ruling.

Savage said Erie County collects $140,000 in annual revenue from its tower tax, McKean and Crawford counties $45,800 each and Lawrence County $65,000.

The cost to have the towers evaluated is about $45,000.