After nearly an hour of impassioned personal accounts from residents and business owners detailing how tax increases would harm them, Jim Thorpe Area School District's board of education voted for a continuance on the appeals at Monday's meeting.

Approximately 150 homeowners and business owners in the area pleaded with the board to put a stop to the tax appeals.Mitch Hanson, co-owner of Somersault Letterpress and Creative, told the board that his current taxes are just over $3,700."Under the new tax assessment, they would be raised to $11,800," he said to the shock of the crowd.Hanson's was just one of numerous stories. More than 600 tax appeals were filed recently, targeting properties that could have been paying inaccurate tax rates. Solicitor Gregory Mousseau was set to begin the appeals on Tuesday, using the value of residents' deeds to contest their tax rates.But the homeowners and businesspeople of Jim Thorpe weren't having it.Attorney Kim R. Roberti, of Roberti and Roberti LLC in Jim Thorpe, has been against the tax appeals since the beginning."It's a 'welcome, neighbor' tax appeal. Basically, 'you just bought a property, we're raising your taxes,'" Roberti said.Roberti said the increase could affect homeowners significantly, with tax increases of a few hundred dollars to over $10,000 for residential properties in some instances. Some commercial properties could see a tax hike of over $20,000.Cass Chies, Realtor and president of the Greater Lehigh Valley Realtors, pointed out that this revenue strategy could be devastating for the community, especially the housing market. After all, it has happened before."That's what is hurting Panther Valley, for sure. The homes are just sitting on the market," she said."Basically, you're going to see history repeat itself if they continue to move forward. What the school board did up there crippled the market."After hearing out the crowd, board member John Ciavarella introduced a motion for a continuance of the tax appeals. The board voted unanimously in favor of the continuance."I will not sit back and let taxes go up $4,000, $5,000. Come on, that is ridiculous," Ciavarella said.Mousseau said that the request for a continuance will almost certainly be granted. While board members like Ciavarella and Gerald Strubinger lean more toward eliminating the appeals, the board members are open to discussing the matter further."To be honest, I would have abolished it right from the beginning, but I don't know the repercussions, what's going to happen," Ciavarella said. "So I'd rather find out what's going to happen before I make a decision."The hefty turnout surprised the board, who were previously unaware of how high the increases could be. Going forward, the board plans to explore other options for revenue, if possible."Until the public came out tonight, I had no idea about the degree of the increase that was going into some of these properties. No one on the board did," board President Dr. Michael Principe said."We want people to pay their fair share, but we don't want them to be gouged. We've got to find a better way to deal with this."