It was 1961, the year John F. Kennedy became president, \u201cHit the Road Jack\u201d by Ray Charles reached No. 1 and Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit his season record-breaking 61st home run.<\/p>\n
It was also the last time Franklin County did a property reassessment.<\/p>\n
State Rep. Rob Kauffman, a Republican whose district covers a chunk of the county, is well aware of the issue. The talk in Franklin, Kauffman said, is about whether local politicians should bring about a county reassessment \u2014 and not about whether the state should pass a reassessment law.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a family discussion in Franklin County, right now,\u201d Kauffman said.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, long-lasting talk continues about creating a state law that would compel counties to reassess regularly.<\/p>\n
It is a top priority of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvania \u2014 by at least some accounts \u2014 is the only state in the nation without such a law.<\/p>\n
CCAP Executive Director Kyle Kopko said passing that sort of measure would eradicate unfair disparities in taxes paid by various owners and lessen the unpredictability of school district funding, among other things.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is just making sure everyone is being treated fairly,\u201d Kopko said.<\/p>\n
Assessed value is a key factor in the amount of taxes due from a property\u2019s owner. It typically is multiplied by the millage rate set by the tax-levying governmental entity to come up with how much tax should be paid by the owner.<\/p>\n
Many counties have not redone assessments since before 2000. More than a few are pre-1980. Lehigh County last redid assessments in 2013, Northampton County in 1995.<\/p>\n
Part of the reason, lawmakers and observers said, is political fear.<\/p>\n
Many in the public interpret \u201creassessment\u201d as \u201ctax increase.\u201d Politicians know that very well and hence shy away from endorsing reassessments.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody wants to do it even though they know it\u2019s the right thing to do,\u201d said Democratic Sen. Wayne Fontana of Allegheny County.<\/p>\n
That trepidation, he said, extends from county-level leaders all the way up to the Supreme Court \u2014 whose justices are elected.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody wants to touch it,\u201d Fontana said.<\/p>\n
The resultant unfairness in the system has led to numerous lawsuits that sometimes end with court-ordered reassessments.<\/p>\n
That happened in Beaver County. A county judge in 2017 ordered a reassessment, the first since 1982, and the first tax bills based on the new calculations went out in January 2024, according to Joshua Eckelberger, chief county assessor.<\/p>\n
The county\u2019s assessed real estate total value went to $15 billion. At the same time, the millage rate dropped from 26 to 3.67. Eckelberger said some property owners saw their tax levy drop even though their assessment went up by 60% or 70%.<\/p>\n
\u201cForty years is too long because the only constant in real estate is change,\u201d Eckelberger said of waiting for reassessment. \u201cWe have one of the worst taxing procedures for real estate in the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
A bill introduced by Fontana would require counties to do a reassessment every five years. According to Fontana, some proponents would rather see them happen every eight to 10 years.<\/p>\n
The bill, introduced last year, has sat in the Senate Local Government Committee for more than a year. Committee Chair Sen. Dawn Keefer of York County sees multiple red flags.<\/p>\n
The projected cost to each county for an assessment, she said, would be $3.6 million. The average time to complete one would be more than 2 \u00bd years. And, Keefer said, a must-reassess law would fly in the face of the widespread fondness for local control.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all about local control until there is a tough decision,\u201d Keefer said. \u201cAnd land use, constitutionally, is local.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest tax bills sent out using assessment-derived calculations come from school districts. One proposed answer from Keefer to the reassessment challenge \u2014 as introduced in her own bill \u2014 is elimination of school property taxes and a shift to reliance on increased sales and income taxes.<\/p>\n
It would be challenging for the Legislature to pass such complex and far-reaching system change this session, with about 12 voting days left for each chamber. A more likely scenario might be introduction of a bill early next year to start the 2027-28 session.<\/p>\n
Josh Zeyn, chief assessor in Tioga County, said calls for reassessment reform have been heard \u201cfor a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was 1961, the year John F. Kennedy became president, \u201cHit the Road Jack\u201d by Ray Charles reached…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,139,29],"class_list":["post-265881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}