Schuylkill County residents coming in for appeal hearings into their new projected property tax assessments should be armed with some type of proof their new tax assessment is too high, officials say.

Both Tim Barr, of Vision Government Resources, the organization doing the reassessment, and two members of the citizen boards hearing the appeals, told the Schuylkill County commissioners the same thing at their Wednesday’s meeting.

“People can use their neighbors’ reassessment values,” said Melinda Deibert of North Manheim Township, a member of one of the appeal boards.

“If they have pictures of the inside and outside of their homes, or if there are neighborhood issues, like stench, or noise,” said Jeff Dunkel of Palo Alto.

The panel members said some people come in with hostile attitudes. But the board members don’t set the new assessments, they reminded.

“If everybody can be nice, it goes a long way,” Deibert said.

“We let family members speak,” said commissioners’ Chairman Larry Padora.

Barr said 8,000 hearings will be held.

“That’s 85% of the properties in the county,” Barr said. “(Approximately) 5,000 of the hearings have been scheduled, and there will be 3,000 more. They will be held through Oct. 31. Then notices will be sent out with the final assessments.”

The new assessments cannot be more than 3% to 5% higher for school taxes, and 10% for municipal taxes, according to Barr.

If property owners are still not satisfied with their new assessment, they can appeal to Schuylkill County Court. But they will need an attorney and a property appraisal — two things that are not necessary for board hearings.

But an appraisal would be helpful during the board hearings.

Just don’t come to the hearing with no new evidence and say you don’t have the income for the new tax – because that is not a defense, Barr said.

The Schuylkill County Commissioners hired Vision Government Solutions of Hudson, Massachusetts, in December 2022 to handle the reassessment as part of the county’s settlement in the 2018 lawsuit by the Community Justice Project in Harrisburg.

Assessors began the process of looking at properties in 2023.

The county’s last reassessment had been done nearly 30 years ago. Changes in property values over time mean some property owners are paying too much and others too little.

County officials said in 2023 that the reassessment would result in roughly one-third of property owners paying more, one-third paying less and one-third paying the same amount.

When Schuylkill County’s property tax reassessment goes into effect in 2026, properties will be assessed at 100% of their new value.

In other property matters, Barr reminded property owners of the Clean and Green and Homestead programs.

The Clean and Green program is open to anyone with at least 10 acres of farmland or woodland that is not used for commercial properties. The deadline to apply for the program has been extended to Oct. 31.

It’s too late to apply for a Homestead designation for this year, but Barr said applications for the program will come with the first tax bill sent by school districts each year.