With a new commissioner majority in place, Lackawanna County is looking to delay the effective date of new property values developed during reassessment for a year, according to a letter written by a county lawyer.
Under a court settlement that forced reassessment, the county must implement new values by Jan. 1. In his letter, attorney John Dean says the county wants to push that to Jan. 1, 2027.
County Commissioner Bill Gaughan, who opposes the delay, immediately called the idea “ridiculous” and potentially costly to taxpayers.
Efforts to reach commissioners Brenda Sacco and Chris Chermak, who formed a new majority on the Board of Commissioners two weeks ago, were not immediately successful.
Dean says the county wants the delay to fix a defect in notices sent to taxpayers to inform them about the new values of their homes, businesses or other real estate, according to the letter. Under state law, the notices should have contained current and proposed property values, but only contained the new values, Dean wrote. Local governments and school district also should have received notices they could appeal new values, but didn't, he said.
“This (delay) will ensure that Lackawanna County, as it desires to do, will implement the reassessment in compliance with the law, but also give its taxpayers the proper notice, which results in fairness and equity to all affect taxpayers,” Dean wrote.
The suit that forced reassessment
Dean wrote the letter to attorney Marielle Macher, who sued the county in 2018 on behalf of several clients to force the first reassessment of property values since the 1960s. He asked Macher to reply by Wednesday.
In the suit, Macher, who works for the Community Justice Project, argued the lack of modern values means many taxpayers who owner lower-valued homes pay taxes that are too high and unfair. Dean represented the county in that suit.
Efforts to reach Macher were not immediately successful.
To settle the suit, which county officials expected to lose, the county agreed in 2022 to carry out the reassessment and hired Tyler Technologies of Plano, Texas, to do the job for $5.1 million.
Tyler finished the job earlier this year, then the county sent out new values. County boards of assessment appeals began hearing appeals of values in August. The appeals were scheduled to end Oct. 31 with certification of the new values scheduled by Nov. 15.
Certification is necessary because local cities, boroughs, townships and school districts need the values to set new property tax rates.
Chermak favors delay
Chermak, who voted against reassessment, has called for months for pausing implementation of new values. He claims the values contained many errors, the appeals process was rushed and lacked prospective new tax rates and many voters don’t understand the appeals process.
Chermak couldn’t get enough votes for a pause because Commissioner Bill Gaughan opposed it and the other commissioner seat was vacant since February because Matt McGloin resigned.
But on Oct. 22, Sacco was sworn in as McGloin’s replacement. At her first commissioners meeting five days later, Sacco did not rule out a reassessment pause but said she wanted to study the issue further.
Efforts to reach assessment director Patrick Tobin on Monday were not immediately successful.
Gaughan scoffs at delay
Gaughan ridiculed the notion of a delay.
“It's like jumping off a roof with an umbrella at this point. It makes no sense whatsoever. It is done, it's completed, and to come in now at the 11th hour under the lame duck administration and try to stop it is so offensive to common sense,” he said Monday.
Lame duck administration refers to Sacco leaving office soon after Commissioner-elect Thom Welby is sworn in as commissioner to finish out McGloin's term. Welby, who won a special election last year, also favors pausing reassessment, saying taxpayers were not properly educated on its effects and the appeals process.
Gaughan pointed out the state law that requires notices to list new and current values says omitting the current values isn’t enough to set aside a reassessment.
He provided an August opinion from former county Solicitor Don Frederickson that points out exactly that. Under the law, taxpayers could use the lack of proper notice during an appeal of new values.
For months Gaughan has warned Macher would return to court to enforce the original settlement. Macher confirmed she will do exactly that.
“If the county unilaterally changed the timeline, it would be in blatant violation of the court order, and we would have no choice but to move to enforce the court order,” Macher said in an email last month. “We have also seen no justification from the county for failing to implement the reassessed values under the court-ordered deadline. The County has produced to us no evidence that it needs more time, and we are aware of no systemic problems with the reassessed values.”
Delaying would only continue to “force over-assessed low-income homeowners to continue to pay more than their fair share,” she wrote.
Gaughan said delaying a year would also cost the county about $2.5 million in new notices, further appeal hearings and for other reasons.
