Property Reassessment

First reported at timesleader.com at 5:44 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 14. REASSESSMENT

August 15, 2008

County exploring 30-day extension

Petrilla wants 30-day delay on deadline for appeal hearings to be completed.

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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Luzerne County Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla wants to discuss with the county reassessment team the possibility of a 30-day delay in the reassessment process.

“I think we should talk with the reassessment team and work together with that team to explore the possibility of going to court to ask for a month’s delay,” she said.

The reassessment team consists of Luzerne County Board of Assessment Appeals members Andy Shiner, Angelo Terrana and Rick Oravic.

Petrilla said a delay would provide “the opportunity to make sure all (assessment) appeals are heard. But she wasn’t sure if seeking the court’s permission for a 30-day extension on the deadline for all appeal hearings to be completed would be adequate.

Currently, the law requires that all hearings be complete by Oct. 31 and that the Board of Assessment Appeals certify the new property values by Nov. 15 in order for them to take effect in 2009. Petrilla said a provision for a 30-day extension on certification of values must be investigated.

“It’s something we as a team need to explore. … I will reach out in the morning to see if we can get a meeting as quickly as possible,” Petrilla said.

Petrilla said a meeting on Thursday with state Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Dallas, and state Rep. Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, prompted the action. Commissioner Steve Urban and county Director of Communications Jason Jarecki attended as well.

Boback said she wanted “to determine firsthand the status of recent countywide reassessment complaints and what commissioners are doing in response to the ensuing discord that has been created.”

“I wanted to stress to them that any reassessment must be equitable for all citizens, to focus on why land values were determined the way they were, and to suggest to the commissioners my belief that the formula is top-heavy,” Boback said.

Boback said her office has received about 200 complaints from constituents – many of them senior citizens whose assessed property values doubled, tripled or quadrupled, and suggested that the county should “take another look at how land valuations were determined using an independent firm hired by the county.”

Baker, at the meeting, asked the commissioners to make sure the assessment appeals process is open to the public.

“People are concerned about the fairness and validity of the entire reassessment process,” Baker said in statement after the meeting.

“Hearing appeals in a secretive process is at odds with open government laws and further weakens citizens’ confidence in government,” Baker said.

Baker said she agreed with a Times Leader review of assessment law “and the analysis of counsel from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association” published in a story in Monday’s paper that questioned whether the county Board of Assessment Appeals might be violating the state Sunshine Law by failing to vote in public on assessment appeal decisions.

Baker disagreed with appeals board Chairman Shiner’s position that assessment appeals votes do not have to be taken in public.

“To my knowledge, there is nothing in law that exempts assessment appeals boards from Sunshine (Law requirements), and nothing that allows assessment law to supersede open-meeting requirements,” Baker said.

Baker asserted that “if the spirit of the Sunshine Law is observed, any votes on appeals should be taken publicly, and the reasons supporting each decision should be recorded and available for public review.”

“No single step will remove the conflict and contention from the reassessment process entirely. But a process that is conducted openly and in compliance with state law is preferable to what exists in Luzerne County today,” she said.

Petrilla said Baker “brought up a very good point at the meeting. We need to have our solicitors look at the process and make sure we are in compliance with the Sunshine Law.”

The state officials were especially concerned that the new assessed values for many properties in Harveys Lake and other areas throughout the county “seem out of skew,” and that “people don’t have a real understanding of how the values were calculated,” Baker said.

Baker said she believes the commissioners will have additional discussions with Shiner and Tim Barr, chief technology officer for 21st Century Appraisals – the company the county is paying $8 million to conduct the county’s first reassessment since 1965.

Petrilla said the meeting was “very productive” in several respects.

“We discussed how we can address the concerns of our mutual constituency in the reassessment process. We all had discussion about the state legislators introducing property tax reform and, in the interim, changing current laws/House bills that are in place to protect the homeowner from a greater-than-10-percent increase,” Petrilla said.

She said she would like to see the legislators “introduce bills that would make the (property tax increases caused by reassessment) gradual, according to income, which as a result would lessen the burden on our lower-income residents.”

“The meeting was productive in that the commissioners and legislators are working together to make sure the process is fair and mistakes are corrected,” Petrilla said.

REASSESSMENT MEETINGS & RALLIES

Various groups have organized a meeting and two rallies in response to Luzerne County’s Reassessment.

• A discussion on reassessment and ways to eliminate property taxes will be held at 7 tonight at the Jackson Township Fire Hall.

All Luzerne County landowners and renters – even those who feel their new assessed land values are acceptable – are invited to learn what individuals can do to stop the process of reassessment and eliminate property taxes.

Call Dorothy Spencer at 779-1253 or Grace Griffin at 779-4179 for directions.

• Voice of the People USA is having a rally to promote overturning and repealing Luzerne County’s reassessment and supporting property-tax reform from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre.

There will be an open microphone for residents throughout the county who were “most dramatically hit” by reassessment.

Voice of the People founder Dan Smeriglio said he is extending an open invitation to Luzerne County Commissioners and representatives of 21st Century Appraisals to attend.

• Harveys Lake residents have organized a rally to protest the reassessment process for 1 p.m. Monday outside the Luzerne County Courthouse, 200 River St., Wilkes-Barre. It will coincide with the commissioners’ work session.

Harveys Lake property owner Michelle Boice says a citizen has donated money for a bus to take borough residents to the rally. Residents should call the borough building at 639-2113 to reserve a seat.

Citizen activist Gene Stilp will attend with his giant pink pig. The 25-foot-long inflatable porker will bear a stop sign reading: “Stop the Unfair Tax Reassessment Now!”

Steve Mocarsky, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 459-2005.

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