Commissioners OK reassessment

How can more people speak out when they are working at ten in the morning. The meetings need to be changed to the evenings so the working people can attend.

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Reassessment is the only way to establish consistency" and equalize the tax base, Tompkins said.

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This may be a part of it...But, I suspect its more about resetting the Tax ceiling to allow easy, up, to 5% increments for future increases.

And then... do it all again..!

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oldbilltown;

There is a limit on how many times they can increase the tax millage up to 5% witout a reassessment.

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It seems like they just did a reassessment not to long ago, the county must be hurting, wheres all that GAS money going?

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Reassessment is almost entirely about relative values. The millage rate is just equal to how much the county needs from its property tax divided by the total value of taxable property in the county. So for example, if all of our property assessments double, then everyone will write have their millage decreased by 50% and end up writing the same size of tax check. [Except they can increase total taxes collected by up to 5%, but if they wanted 5% more taxes, they could just increase the tax millage by 5%.]

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lol I'm not a psychic Sham, nor was I suggesting I was. By nailed, I simply mean that the taxes, as approved, are going to raise for a lot of people. They already approved a property tax hike for anyone who's property is worth 100k or more. I suspect and I doubt I'm wrong, that this assessment will put most of the homes in the county at or above that mark.

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Partial Quote:

Trends in the market have become inconsistent and unfair. Reassessment is the only way to establish consistency" and equalize the tax base, Tompkins said.

End Partial Quote:

Its also the only way they can continue to raise property Taxes without having to put it on the Ballot for Tax-Payer approval...!!

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"The need is there to offset the lack of income from the KOZ properties. Lets build more Kohls stores!" - eric88

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Hmmmmmmmm....KOZ: Businesses or companies that are new to Pennsylvania must locate within one of the designated zones to receive tax benefits. Businesses and companies that are already well established in Pennsylvania may become obtain KOZ benefits by increasing full-time employment within one year after receiving KOZ status or by making capital investments equal to 10 percent of the previous years gross revenue.

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"It's not like they were going to say NO to screwing people over with a 'rigged assessment' that will lead to significantly more tax revenue.

Think whatever you want Shaman, everyone is getting nailed by this assessment." - wwhickok

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Define "nailed".

Seeing-as-how I haven't the psychic-"skills" you (obviously) have, what will the taxes on a $100K home be??

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To make this a fair process, the county should look at all appeals from the last reassessment and then see if any appraisers used in those appeals consistently undervalued properties, relative to later sales values. If so, those appraisers should be disallowed for future appeals. If no such records were kept, the county should keep a careful list this time to see if there is any consistent pattern of inaccurately low appraisals used in appeals. Fair appraisals should be too high as often as they are too low.

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The need is there to offset the lack of income from the KOZ properties. Lets build more Kohls stores!

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It's not like they were going to say NO to screwing people over with a 'rigged assessment' that will lead to significantly more tax revenue.

Think whatever you want Shaman, everyone is getting nailed by this assessment.

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"Commissioners said some property owners either are paying too little or too much property taxes. Reassessment creates what they say is an even playing field."

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I surely would like to think the reassessments WON'T reflect the taxes assessed on the investment-community...in-FAVOR of those sitting on $ignificant real-e$tate.

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