Muni leaders prefer reassessment delay

Wilkes-Barre officials are taking a wait-and-see attitude before the city commits to using Luzerne County’s reassessment figures. Other area municipal leaders are urging the county to delay implementing the new values.

Mayor Tom Leighton said the city is in a different situation than other county municipalities because Wilkes-Barre has its own assessment office, its own assessor and its own assessment figures – three things the county’s other three cities do not have.

Hazleton, Nanticoke and Pittston no longer employ an assessor and have been using the county assessments for years. All three have decided to accept the new assessment figures provided by 21st Century Appraisals Inc., the company placing new values on property in the county.

Leighton said Wilkes-Barre’s charter mandates the 2009 budget be ready for public inspection by Oct. 15 – one month before the deadline for appeals of the county reassessment.

“No other city in the county has the choice that we have,” Leighton said. “We’ve never used the county assessment figures; we have always used our own.”

Leighton said the city has the option to use the new county assessments. Wilkes-Barre’s last assessment was done in the 1960s, according to Leighton.

“I really hope the county decides to hold off on implementing the new assessment figures for a year,” said Leighton. (The mayor is a certified real estate broker and appraiser.) “Let’s get all of the appeals out of the way and see where we are. It’s too difficult to do an accurate budget with all of the uncertainty due to the pending appeals.”

At Hazleton City Council’s meeting Wednesday night, Mayor Lou Barletta and council said the county should hold off on implementing the assessment. They urged Hazleton residents to attend the county commissioners’ Sept. 17 meeting at Hazleton City Hall.

Other municipal leaders in the county including Kingston Mayor Jim Haggerty and Nanticoke Administrator Kenneth Johnson, also expressed an interest in delaying the implementation of the new assessments for a year.

Haggerty appealed the county’s assessment of his property, like many others in the county.

“Uncertainties are always a problem for budgets. I think if they (the county) get between a rock and a hard place, they’ll have to punt,” Johnson said.

Hazleton expects more than 15,000 property owners in the city to appeal their reassessments. Barletta said it will be more difficult to prepare the city’s budget, but not impossible.

Pittston Mayor Joe Keating said the same, noting his city turned over the assessment duties to the county a year and a half ago.

“I can prepare a budget, no problem,” Keating said. “I think every town will have a problem with their budgets if the appeals aren’t done in time. I really think the assessment will be delayed for a year.”

Keating said he hasn’t heard a lot of complaints from residents, but knows there “aren’t too many happy people out there.”

Haggerty and Johnson said Nov. 1 is the latest they’d like to receive final county figures in order to prepare a budget that could be adopted by year’s end. Both said that isn’t a “drop-dead” deadline. Johnson said Nanticoke will begin preparing its budget in August and “we’ll go on assumptions” until the county gives them final assessment figures.

“No other city in the county has the choice that we have. We’ve never used the county assessment figures; we have always used our own.”