Property Reassessment

August 10, 2008

Pittston Township zeroes in on reassessment

Ian Campbell Times Leader Correspondent

It was a far cry from the more raucous recent meeting in Ashley on countywide reassessment.

In a little over one and a half hours, county commissioners Maryann Petrilla and Steve Urban, accountant Al Melone, county assessment director Tony Alu, lawyer Jack Dean and attorney and real estate appraiser Alan Rosenn answered questions about the process from a standing-room-only audience of about 250 people gathered in a Pittston Township hotel.

It was, according to Petrilla, a productive meeting with a lot of legitimate questions that needed some serious answers.

Petrilla said that when the county had tried to have informational meetings about reassessment earlier in the process few had attended, but, she said, once people had the information in their hands, they were able to make comments and ask questions in a meaningful way.

She said there was still confusion about things such as the homestead exemption, which is $25,000 for school taxes, but only $10,000 for county levies.

Among the concerns she faced was one that suggested that waiting until Oct. 31 to provide the results of a formal hearing, when the new values would be adopted the next day, was not logical, given the number of complaints.

The date had been provided by the assessment hearing board, but Petrilla agreed that sending the results out sooner would give more opportunity to fix mistakes.

A resident noted that in one case in the township’s Browntown section, where land had been valued at $27,500 for a tenth of an acre, 21st Century Appraisals’ value would be $275,000 per an entire acre, a sum that brought laughter in the room.

“An acre of land for $275,000 in the township? If it was assessed for $27,500 for half of an acre, now how can you say it’s been a fair job,” he said.

The panel was also told about a development with 24 properties, each identical and built within 18 months of each other, yet not one property was valued the same as another.

When people had protested problems like that at the informal hearings – some of which had been scheduled after the date of the formal hearing for the same location – they’d been told those issues would need to be addressed at the formal hearing.

“This is an older community. They devalued commercial and hit residential. Our people can’t afford this,” Supervisor Tony Attardo said.

Rosenn noted that the important thing was to look at the combination, in terms of house and land prices.

In some cases the land might have been appraised high, but the house could have been valued lower, making a total package that most owners would find acceptable.

But in several cases in which residents said entire areas had been overvalued for land, regardless of the buildings on the site, the county might need to have 21st Century revisit the entire area as a possible solution, Alu said.

Dean, moderating the event for the Pittston Township supervisors who had arranged it, said lawyers were looking into residents having to spend time and money proving the value of their properties, rather than having that responsibility fall to the assessment company.

The important thing, he and the others on the panel noted, was to follow the current procedures.

The reassessment has to go ahead, but the county is determined to do it right, Petrilla said.

Protest Planned

A group of taxpayers from the Back Mountain are inviting all residents in Luzerne County to join them for a “Reassessment Protest” to be held on Monday, August 18 at 1 p.m. at the Luzerne County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre.

For more information or to volunteer, contact Audrey Simpson at 606-8320 or 239-6718.

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