Property Reassessment

September 17, 2008

Skrep to again try to delay reassess

He said he is leaning against idea to borrow up to $16M.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
Jennifer Learn-Andes on Facebook   |   @TLJenLearnAndes on Twitter

Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak said he will seek another vote to halt the reassessment at tonight’s on-the-road commissioner meeting. He also said he’s leaning against voting on a plan to seek court approval to borrow up to $16 million to fund the deficit.

Skrepenak said he asked Commissioner Chairman Maryanne Petrilla to put a reassessment delay vote on tonight’s agenda.

Petrilla said she won’t because the matter was on the agenda in August and did not receive a second vote.

Petrilla and minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban did not support a delay, saying they want to give the reassessment company and appeals boards the chance to correct errors and adjust values.

Skrepenak said he will seek a second vote to go off the agenda.

The number of formal assessment appeals yet to be heard will be one of his key arguments for a delay, he said. His administrative assistant physically counted all filed appeals that have not been scheduled or heard and found there are 9,482, he said.

“How can they all be heard by the Oct. 31 deadline, and if they are, how effective can they be?” he said. “It seems they’re just pushing them through the system.”

Skrepenak said he does not believe he will vote for the $16 million in borrowing, a plan he describes as “the beginning of raising taxes in Luzerne County after reassessment.”

He said the county was $24 million in debt when he took office in 2004, and county financial adviser Public Financial Management advised commissioners to borrow to cover the debt.

“Now they’re telling us to do the same thing again,” Skrepenak said.

He said the company developed a five-year financial recovery plan in 2004, and he wants to revisit the plan before borrowing.

“There have been other things proposed, and a lot didn’t move forward for reasons I don’t understand,” he said.

Petrilla and Urban question the sincerity of Skrepenak’s opposition because he voted to borrow or extend debt repayments during each of his first four years in office.

Petrilla said he should have started pushing for the financial recovery plan implementation years ago. The thick plan outlined hundreds of initiatives, including the addition of time clocks and hiring freezes.

Reviewing the plan, though worthwhile, won’t help the county meet its expenses this year, Petrilla said. As it is, the county must wait until mid-November to receive the up to $16 million through bonds, which means putting off borrowing would jeopardize the county’s ability to function, she said. “We are faced with fabricated revenues that he approved,” she said.

Urban said he blames “this entire budget fiasco” on Skrepenak and other previous top county managers. “They just faked the budget to make it fit,” Urban said.

Urban said the up to $16 million debt includes unrealistic county land sale revenue, the failure to budget pension fund subsidy and “significantly overestimated” back-tax collection projections.

He said budget office employees discovered the county still owed $2.2 million in allocations to Luzerne County Community College from 2006 and 2007. More than $3 million owed to 911 from 2005 and 2006 was also not budgeted, he said.

“We have new people in the budget office who are bringing these things to light,” Urban said. “I think we have some honorable people in the budget office now who are helping to turn the county around.”

If you go

Tonight’s Luzerne County Commissioner meeting is at 5 p.m. in Hazleton City Hall on state Route 309.

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