About half of Lackawanna County homeowners will learn the new taxable values of their properties soon.
The county plans to mail new values to about 50,000 property owners on Friday. The rest will hit the mail a week later on March 21.
In a statement, county assessment director Patrick Tobin said Tyler Technologies hasn’t completed new values for commercial and industrial properties.
Tyler, one of the largest property reassessment companies in the country and based in Plano, Texas, is creating the new values. The county’s last reassessment went into effect in 1968.
Tobin said the new values are not tax bills. The county, local governments and school districts won’t use new values to calculate taxes until next year.
The new values have nothing to do with 2025 property tax bills, he said.
County commissioners Debi Domenick and Jerry Notarianni, who are no longer in office, voted in March 2022 to move forward with the first reassessment since the 1960s. Commissioner Chris Chermak, still in office, voted no.
Two months later, the commissioners hired Tyler to carry out the job for $5,178,088.
The commissioners contended the reassessment was long overdue. Property values are far from real values, leaving some owners paying more than they should and some paying less, proponents argue.
Chermak voted no because he fears new values will leave elderly and other fixed-income homeowners facing tax bills they can’t afford.
The notices will include instructions for questioning or challenging values.
Property owners can start by meeting informally with Tyler officials who will explain how they came up with the new values.
Owners may also formally challenge new valuations before a county board of assessment appeals.
The assessment office's phone number is 570-963-6728, and its email is assessor@lackawannacounty.org.
The county has an assessment appeals board, but plans to establish four auxiliary three-member appeals boards. Appeal hearings will begin Aug. 1 and continue through Halloween.
Final values must be in place by Nov. 15 to allow county, local governments and school districts to formulate budgets.
Auxiliary board members will be paid $24,000 each.
Interested prospective board members with state certifications as real-estate evaluators are automatically qualified. Others must train during a six-hour online course.
Applicants should include qualifications and apply to the Lackawanna County Assessor’s Office, Lackawanna County Government Center,
123 Wyoming Ave., 2nd Floor, Scranton, Pa., 18503.
