Assessing the reassessment

By LYLE T. GALLOWAY
Posted 7/7/21

HONESDALE, PA — The Wayne County Commissioners want to clear the air regarding rumors and misconceptions surrounding the county-wide reassessment plan: the county has nothing to gain from the reassessment. While tangential to the current real estate boom, the process itself began in 2018. Funding for the project was secured in 2019 with savings from a debt restructuring plan.

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Assessing the reassessment

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HONESDALE, PA — The Wayne County Commissioners want to clear the air regarding rumors and misconceptions surrounding the county-wide reassessment plan: the county has nothing to gain from the reassessment. While tangential to the current real estate boom, the process itself began in 2018. Funding for the project was secured in 2019 with savings from a debt restructuring plan.

“This is not a money grab; this is not about increased revenue for the county,” said Commissioner Brian Smith. “This is about tax fairness. Legally, we are limited as to increasing revenue in the year after a reassessment. We are not doing this because we need more money; right now, the county is fine with revenue. We are doing this because there are unfair taxation situations out there that we are aware of.”

The commissioners also stressed that the process will be “revenue neutral.”

All three commissioners sit on the Board of Assessment Appeals. There, they saw many cases of properties being under-assessed and over-assessed when tax appeals came through. They could not “spot correct” these individual properties because the act itself is illegal. 

Privacy was also a matter to be considered. According to Pennsylvania law, tax assessors cannot enter one’s home. Judgments are often made from looking at the outside of one’s house. This can create problems, especially with things like decorative dormers.

“If you look at a house and there’s a dormer on it and there are curtains in the dormer, an assumption generally can be made that it’s finished space, and if it’s not that’s why it’s important for you as a property owner to inform us, ‘no, that’s not a finished space,’ or it’s no space at all,” said commissioner Joseph Adams.

Mailers were sent out in June containing previously listed information like the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, heating sources and whether one has a concrete basement or crawlspace. These mailers give homeowners the opportunity to self-correct any information without the need for assessors or tax appeals. The county will be using the last 30 months as a measuring stick to base the assessment on. “It’s not just taking the last 12 months of a booming real estate market into effect; it’s taking 30 months. Thirty months ago, the real estate market was not nearly as expensive as it is now... If your next-door neighbor’s house is exactly like yours and it sold 30 months ago, it’s going to be used for a comparable purpose,” said Adams.

A possible tax increase also worries many Wayne County residents. “Our expectation, as is the norm across the nation, is that a county-wide tax reassessment will result in a third of the taxpayers paying the same, a third will go down and a third may increase,” said commissioner Jocelyn Cramer.

The reassessment process is being overseen by Tyler Technologies, one of the largest mass appraisal companies in the world. They have conducted reassessments for Monroe County, Delaware County and are in the process of doing one in Beaver County.

The commissioners plan on issuing weekly press updates regarding this matter.

Property owners will experience the effects of this assessment beginning in January 2023. In June of 2022, there will be an appraisal report that will be mailed out to residents, containing the estimated worth of their house based upon the data that’s collected.

Residents will then have the summer and the fall to talk with representatives if they feel that the new information is incorrect in any way.

Residents are being encouraged to return the assessment information that was mailed. If a homeowner did not receive a mailer, or it was lost, they can apply for a new one.

As of July 1, 38% of the mailers have been returned. “We do appreciate the participation and the amount of returns that we are getting. It was told to us by Tyler early on not to expect more than 23%,” said Smith.

The commissioners have issued a press release containing frequently asked questions about the information being sent in the mail, and the entire process itself.

For more information regarding the assessment, call the hotline at 570/251-8985. However, before calling, residents are encouraged to check the FAQ page on the website at www.waynecountypa.gov/869/Countywide-Property-Tax-Reassessment.

Honesdale, Commissioners, taxes, reassessment, property

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