A Summit Hill man whose property’s assessment is being appealed by the Panther Valley School District later this month is looking to Carbon County for guidance.

On Thursday, David Zucal approached the county commissioners to see if there were any plans in the near future for a countywide reassessment to be completed on all properties.He said he wanted to know because on Oct. 26 and 27, Panther Valley School District, on orders from the district’s solicitor, is starting the appeal process on assessments on 39 properties in the hope of raising the assessed value using the purchase price instead of the 2001 reassessment value.“It’s creating a really large gap between the 2001 values and today’s present values,” Zucal said. “When a countywide reassessment is performed, after it’s done aren’t the millage rates supposed to come down to level out what they were paying previously so it’s not a tremendous amount more? When we’re reassessed individually, the millage rates stay high, and that’s what’s killing us as property owners.”Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said that there is no plan for a countywide reassessment at this time.The last full reassessment in Carbon was completed between 1999 and 2000 following a Supreme Court ruling that sided with property owners who believed their properties were overassessed, an article previously published in the Times News states. That was the first countywide reassessment since 1969.Nothstein said that school districts have the right to appeal any assessment at any time, but agreed with Zucal that the appeals “create a disparity on all the assessments in the county based on the sales.”Zucal said that if Panther Valley is successful in its appeal, his taxes on his two-bedroom home on 3 acres of land would jump from $9,000 a year to $16,200.“It’s going to be a tremendous burden,” he said.Commissioner William O’Gurek agreed, but said that the appeals come down to a Supreme Court ruling that allows schools to do so.“I’m not thrilled about it myself,” he said. “We understand that, and it does create a disparity, but unfortunately we’re saddled with the ruling that they can do that and they exercise the right to do that.“The system is very, very, very much broke to the extent that if funding levels of state subsidies to education for local school districts isn’t enough then the local school directors are forced to raise taxes, and they look for alternative means of funding, and unfortunately and sadly, one of the means of funding is increasing the assessments of property that sell more than the property assessment is, and that’s sad,” O’Gurek added.“My situation is if I live here for another 25 years, I paid $356,000 (for my home),” Zucal said. “In 25 years, I’ll be paying another $400,000 for that house. I have to ask myself is it worth that much to live in Carbon County? I drive down the roads and people are dumping TVs, refrigerators, stoves, beer bottles and garbage. It’s unbelievable.”Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard agreed with Zucal, saying that trash has been a big issue in the county for years.He also sympathized with Zucal’s appeal dilemma.“That’s an astronomical amount for you,” he said.Zucal asked if the county is at least putting money away for the next reassessment, whenever it happens.Nothstein said that they are not and the county is still paying on the $3 million bond issue from the previous one.County solicitor Daniel Miscavige said that the answer lies in the Legislature, which has been fighting about fixing property taxes for years unsuccessfully.Zucal also took his concerns to the Panther Valley School Board Thursday night.Superintendent Dennis Kergick said he was aware that the district was challenging the assessments. He responded by saying appealing assessments is nothing new.“We do that every year. We have been doing it for approximately 23 years,” he said.He told Zucal that Realtors should be required to tell people buying homes in the district that their assessment could be challenged.“That wouldn’t work out very beneficial for any school district to leave them as they are,” he said.Earlier in the day, Zucal told commissioners that neither the school board president or vice president knew anything regarding this action and the topic had not been discussed at a meeting and no vote to act on this had ever been taken.Reporter Chris Reber contributed to this story.