More than 6,000 people appealed Schuylkill County’s newly assessed property values, about a third less than expected, the county’s chief assessor said.
Christine Zimmerman estimated as many as 7,000 may have filed, but said she hasn’t had time to come up with a precise count because staff members are busy with appeal hearings.
Zimmerman expected appeals on about 10% of the county’s 92,133 parcels, or about 9,200.
She thinks the number of appeals is lower because the county provided an estimated total 2026 tax bill for every property when it mailed the final values.
The total tax bill includes taxes levied by the county, Pottsville, boroughs, townships and school district, though it doesn’t break down the tax for each local government.
“I think that made a difference, that the people could see what the possible yearly impact would be, as opposed to just what the county (tax) impact was going to be,” Zimmerman said.
The first values mailed
Earlier this year, the county mailed values with only projected county taxes.
That happened before the county’s informal appeal process began. The informal process allowed people to correct data collected on their properties, but not question values. The formal appeal hearing process allows challenging values.
Tim Barr, project manager for Vision Government Solutions, which carried out the reassessment, said the county had about 3,500 informal appeals, though he expected 10,000.
So far, Barr said, the county has so far scheduled about 3,000 formal appeals, including about 400 for commercial properties.
Hearings began Aug. 6. The county must conclude all hearings by Halloween, Oct. 31, and plans to mail final values by Nov. 15.
Setting new tax rates
After that, local governments will set new tax millage rates based on the new values. The new rates will go into effect Jan. 1 for the county and local governments and July 1 for school districts.
The millage rates must drop because reassessment has sharply raised assessed values, and governments may not raise more tax money from reassessment in the first year new values take effect.
Pottsville, the county, boroughs and townships may raise millage rates above the revenue-neutral reassessment level rates to gain up to 10% more in tax revenues, but must do that in a separate vote at different meeting, Barr said.
School districts may only raise taxes beyond the revenue-neutral rates by as much as their normal annually calculated and capped increases, Barr said.
An extra board hired for hearings
The established three-member county assessment appeals board, plus six auxiliary, three-member boards, are conducting value appeal hearings at the former Schuylkill Transportation System building near St. Clair. Each hearing is limited to 15 minutes.
Barr said auxiliary board members received six hours of state training. He trained them for three more hours on county-specific reassessment details, he said.
“It's been smoother than most or than many,” Barr said. “The first few days were rough because everybody's new to it, and it's a challenge because there's only 15 minutes for each two parcels that somebody brings in. So, it's hard for everybody to get done by the end of the day, but they're accomplishing that.”
Focusing appeals
Barr urged people who appeal to focus on what affects their property values, not tax reform or tax rates.
“Tell me about the house, tell me about the property. Tell me about the sales that you've researched,” he said.
Anyone unhappy with their final values after an appeal may appeal further in the county court of common pleas.
Why reassessment
Currently, the county relies on values set in 1996.
Faced with a lawsuit challenging the fairness of its values, the county hired Vision to conduct the reassessment in December 2022 for $6.6 million plus $375,000 for software and $144,500 a year for software services.
