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The total assessed value of properties in the county is almost $7 billion, unfortunately over $1 billion are from properties that are exempt from paying taxes and that trend is growing.
"It looks like we're close to 17 percent of our assessed value is non-taxable," said Commissioner Rick Mirabito at a recent Lycoming County Commissioners' meeting.
In 2023, according to Brooke Wright, the county's chief assessor, there were 2,062 exempt parcels and now that figure is at 2,091.
"Keep in mind it could be from veterans exemptions, FEMA buyouts and then there are other exemptions that were approved this year," Wright told the commissioners.
"So that means year after year 17 percent or so of our parcels are not paying any taxes," Mirabito said.
"That's a problem. That is not specific to us, but it's across Pennsylvania. I think the legislature needs to look at that," he said.
He added that the newly elected commissioners who were at the meeting might want to push for the laws to be changed.
The number of taxable parcels is 51,994 with an assessed value of $5,781,039,630. The exempt parcels are assessed at $1,057,789,820. The total number of parcels in the county are 54,085 assessed at $6,838,829,450.
Commissioner Tony Mussare then questioned what the value of the properties would be if the county were to do a reassessment bringing the assessments more in line with property values in the current real estate market.
Wright explained that until a reassessment is done there is no way of determining that information.
"This is one of the problems with not doing a reassessment--elected officials can't tell you how it's going to turn out so we hesitate to talk about reassessments. Matter of fact, we postpone them for that reason. We can't tell who's going to gain and who's going to lose, who's going to pay more and who's going to pay less," Mussare said.
The county's last reassessment was done in 2004. What this means is that property taxes are paid on the assessed value of the property, not its market value. Properties in the county are assessed by the 2004 base which doesn't account for the increased cost of materials today.
If a tax payer would build a new home for $1 million it would be assessed by those 2004 standards, not on the current value of materials today.
"When you build that million dollar home...you're going to look at the 2004 construction manual for the cost of materials," Mirabito said.
"We all know the cost of materials has gone up, so the assessed value is immediately going to be out of kilter. The common level ratio tells us that we've reached the point where if we don't do a reassessment, we're actually damaging our ability to function as a fair and equitable taxing authority because some people are going to be paying a whole lot less because of the common level ratio, even in new construction," he said.
The commissioners have in the past discussed the need for a reassessment of properties in the county to bring them in line with current values. One deterrent is the cost.
Wright told the commissioners that as a guess, it could cost over $3.8 million just to conduct the reassessment.
Mirabito pointed out that the reason it's so costly is because Pennsylvania does not require reassessment, so there are few companies that offer that service.
"If the legislature required it, we might be able to draw more companies in and create competition to actually drive down the price," Mirabito said.