Assessments drop $7.3M in latest property owner wins

Luzerne County property owners continue to get satisfaction negotiating assessment reductions at mediation.

A combined $7.3 million in assessed value was knocked off the most recent 113 properties that went through mediation, according to a review of settlements filed in the county.

That brings the overall reduction total to about $39 million since mediation started in December. That figure covers 513 settlements, and the county still has about 1,500 more to process.

Mediation is the court-level process to challenge county assessment appeal board rulings stemming from last year’s reassessment.

An average 26 percent in assessment reductions was granted in the most recent batch of settlements.

The largest dollar reduction was $1.34 million for 15 Public Square in Wilkes-Barre, commonly known as the Bicentennial Building.

The Wilkes-Barre Industrial Development Authority is listed as the building owner, but the office/retail property is taxable.

Reassessment company 21st Century Appraisals Inc. originally valued the property at $7.9 million. A county appeals board knocked it down to $4.6 million, and it was further reduced to $3.325 million at mediation.

The newly settled mediations also include a property that had been publicly held up as an example of flaws with the countywide reassessment.

Reassessment critic Michelle Boice had repeatedly pointed to a 1,740-square-foot Lehman Township property on 0.93 acre that sold for $120,000 in a bidding war in 2007.

Boice, a Realtor, had been the agent for buyers Jacqueline Latosek and Robin Morcavage. 21st Century valued the property at $216,300.

A county appeals board lowered the value to $183,900, but Boice said the property owners didn’t get justice until the assessment was recently reduced to $150,000 at mediation.

School, county and local property taxes would have been $2,794 with the original value, compared to a bill of $1,938 with the mediation amount.

Boice said the 2007 purchase of the home in competition with multiple interested buyers should have been enough proof to convince the county to lower the value sooner.

“They shouldn’t have had to go to mediation. That’s where I have a big problem with what the county did to people,” Boice said.

21st Century, which is trying to intervene in one of the mediations, said the mediation procedure is leading or may lead to “unconstitutional systematic undervaluation.”

County officials have argued that their mediation solicitor, David Schwager, is experienced in assessment law and would not agree to an amount unless it’s researched and cleared by certified Pennsylvania evaluators who work in the county assessor’s office.

Both the county and property owners must sign off on mediation settlement amounts, and there have been no non-settlements recorded in the county to date.