Tim Barr of Vision Government Services gave the Schuylkill County Commissioners an update last week on the reassessment.

“One hundred percent of the residential properties have been visited, and we are doing follow-ups,” Barr said. “We have visited 39% of commercial and industrial properties. Our data collection teams have inputted 72% of the data.”

Barr explained how the data collected will be used to assess new property taxes.

“Our valuation team will study sales in the recent past of the real estate market,” Barr said. “Big-ticket properties will appeal their new assessment in the year after.”

Commissioner Chairman Larry Padora noted all county residents have the right to appeal their new assessment.

Barr said the process is on track to reassess the county’s property taxes in 2026.

A county school district has sent out letters that there will be a tax increase because of the reassessment.

Barr said when the property taxes are adjusted by the reassessment, it will be “revenue neutral,” meaning higher taxes will not happen to create a windfall in any municipality or school district.

County commissioners in December 2022 hired the firm for $6.6 million to handle the reassessment.

The update was forced by the county’s settlement on May 16, 2022, of a lawsuit filed on July 30, 2018 by the Community Justice Project.

The Harrisburg nonprofit group contended that property evaluations were unfairly determined and created an inequitable tax burden. The group has filed several similar suits in the state, including in Lackawanna and Allegheny counties. The suit was based on the section of the Pennsylvania Constitution that states that “all taxes shall be uniform, upon the same class of subjects, within the territorial limits of authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected under general laws. Simply put, it requires property taxation to be uniform and fair.

Schuylkill County’s last reassessment was done 27 years ago. Changes in property values over time mean some property owners are paying too much and others too little. County officials have said the reassessment will result in roughly one-third of property owners paying more, one-third paying less and one-third paying the same amount.

“There should be a reassessment every four years,” Padora said last week. “Then there wouldn’t be a need to canvass every property in the county. It would not cost as much each time.”

West End woes continue

Mike Miller of Hegins went before the commissioners for the third consecutive week about a large swatch of sewage in his backyard.

Miller thanked the commissioners for coming out to his property to see the damage.

Melinda Deibert of North Manheim Township also thanked the commissioners for surveying the property.

Padora said the commissioners are trying to set up a meeting with the state Department of Environmental Protection to discuss Miller’s situation as well as the odors that have plagued the west end of the county.