Reassessing reassessment

State Rep. John Yudichak wants to study the possible creation of a state reassessment office so the cost and decision on when to revalue properties won’t be left up to counties.

The state office could also end up handling the actual determination of what properties are worth, similar to a system used in Maryland, though Yudichak stressed that the concept is still in its infancy and would hinge on the will of his colleagues, the cost and the results of a study of what’s being done in other states.

The effort was fueled, in part, by the struggles that resulted from Luzerne County’s 44-year gap between reassessments, said Yudichak, D-Nanticoke. Such delays aren’t unusual in Pennsylvania counties, he said.

Nearly 50 percent of the state’s 67 counties haven’t reassessed in a decade, and some counties are still using values from the 1950s, he said.

“Pennsylvania is the only state to my knowledge that leaves the property reassessments completely up to the counties, and that system has been an abysmal failure,” Yudichak said.

Lengthy delays lead to sudden, drastic tax hikes for some property owners, negating the state’s efforts to reduce property taxes using gambling and lottery proceeds, he said.

“What I realized in Luzerne County is that a lot of that relief can be wiped away from a reassessment if it’s not done properly or if it’s not done on a routine basis,” Yudichak said.

Luzerne County officials have promised to perform reassessments every five years so the values never again get so out-of-whack. Future reassessments would be done in-house, so the cost won’t come close to the $9 million spent on the reassessment that took effect this year, county officials have said.

But Yudichak said that pledge could go by the wayside if future commissioners change their minds.

“We may not get one done here for another 44 years because of the perception of fairness and cost,” he said.

Yudichak said he will introduce legislation within a week or so requiring the state Legislative and Budget Finance Committee to study states that have state reassessment offices and determine the cost of starting one here.

Maryland, for example, funds and performs reassessments “in a routine and professional fashion,” he said. Revaluations are conducted on three-year cycles in Maryland, which means one-third of the properties are reassessed every year. The state also allows assessment increases to be phased in, he said.

His legislation package would also call for a short-term, statewide moratorium on court-ordered reassessments.

Allegheny County, for example, was recently ordered by the state Supreme Court to reassess. The court ruled in that case that the county’s use of assessments tied to a base year – in this case 2002 -- was unconstitutional without plans for a reassessment factoring in market changes. Most counties use this base year type of system, which also makes them vulnerable to court-ordered reassessments if they haven’t revalued property in recent years.

Yudichak’s bill would need House and Senate approval, and the study would likely take up to a year to complete, he said.

Luzerne County Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla said she has not been briefed on the proposal but would welcome state assistance, especially funding. The cost of reassessment includes office space and manpower to process appeals and still-ongoing mediation challenges, she said.

“If we didn’t have a bond to fund this, we would’ve been in deep trouble,” Petrilla said.

Minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said the state should provide funding to counties, in part because the assessments are also used for school and municipal taxation.

He does not believe the state should go as far as performing or overseeing the valuation of properties, saying the state doesn’t “need a new bureaucracy.” Instead, he believes the state should mandate a formula to trigger mandatory reassessments. This trigger should be based on a sales-versus-assessment analysis done annually by the state’s Tax Equalization Board, he said.

Urban said legislators’ involvement in requiring reassessments is overdue because the inequity of assessments statewide has been common knowledge, and many commissioners don’t want to deal with the backlash of revaluations.

“I believe the Supreme Court decision was a wake-up call for the legislature, which has been asleep far too long on the issue of uniformity and tax fairness,” Urban said.

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Property Reassessment

State Rep. John Yudichak wants Pa. to study whether it should take role in re-evaluating property values.

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