POTTSVILLE — The ongoing county reassessment project will conclude by mid-November, project director Tim Barr said Wednesday.
Barr, representing Vision Government Solutions, the company hired to do a county-wide reassessment project, provided an update on reassessment at the latest weekly meeting of the county commissioners.
The final property values were mailed to residents by July 1, and between 6,000 to 7,000 formal appeals were filed with the county tax assessment office by the deadline of Aug. 11. Appeal hearings began in August and will be held through the end of October, Barr said.
Most appeals hearings have been scheduled, and the remaining hearings will be scheduled in the next two weeks.
“The anecdotal feedback that we’re seeing is that it’s an effective process,” Barr said of the hearings. “Not everybody gets a reduction. A small percentage, we’ve seen them go up.”
The next step in the process, he said, is the Court of Common Pleas.
If residents do decide to take their appeals to court, Barr encouraged them to consult an attorney.
“It’s obviously more involved than the formal appeals were, but that’s the next step,” he said.
“You don’t need to go to Common Pleas unless you still don’t agree with the value,” he added. “You can’t appeal the process, you can’t appeal the codes. You can only appeal the final value. But if that value is still more than you think you can sell your property for, then you should appeal to Common Pleas.”
While the new values go into effect next year, residents will get another chance to appeal next year (for 2027), he said.
Residents will receive final decision orders by Nov. 15. They will have a 30-day deadline to appeal to the Court of Common Pleas from the date their notice is mailed, Barr said.
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