The company conducting Schuylkill County’s property tax reassessment is planning to host five informational public meetings in March.
Tim Barr, with Vision Government Solutions, told Schuylkill County Commissioners on Wednesday that these informational sessions will provide updates on the reassessment process and give the public a chance to ask questions about it.
Barr told The Canary that the meetings will be in March but there are no dates set as of now. Meetings will be held in the Blue Mountain School District area, Pine Grove Area School District area, North Schuylkill School District area, Pottsville area, and Tamaqua area. Specific locations have also not been set.
The five meetings for this update are two more than were held prior to the start of the reassessment process. In 2023, three public meetings were held in northern Schuylkill County, Tamaqua, and Pottsville.
“We need to get the Blue Mountain folks and the Pine Grove folks better than we did for the kickoff,” Barr said at Wednesday’s Commissioners meeting.
The meetings will happen just prior to the initial round of preliminary assessments being mailed out to property owners in Schuylkill County. These sessions will give property owners a chance to learn what has happened so far in the process and the critical steps ahead, Barr said.
“The focus is going to be on the process,” Barr says.
Barr provided an overview of the process so far and what’s ahead in the reassessment.
As of Monday, all but about 5,000 data verification mailers have been sent to residential property owners in Schuylkill County. An initial batch of about 42,000 mailers were already sent. A second wave of about 13,700 mailers went out on Monday, Barr says. The remaining mailers are mostly going to mobile homes.
These mailers give property owners a chance to correct any data points about their homes, buildings, and land that was collected by Vision employees during their field analysis since the reassessment began.
After these informational meetings, preliminary assessments will go out and property owners will then have a chance at an informal review of those valuations. Barr stresses that informal reviews are not appeals.
“They’re not a debate about values,” Barr says.
Informal reviews will happen in April and May of this year and can be done in-person or by phone.
By July 1, Barr says, residential property owners will have their final values in hand. That’s when the formal appeals process begins. Property owners have 40 days from the date their final valuations are mailed to file an appeal.
Appeals will be held before a three-person board. There will be 20 people hired to temporarily sit on auxiliary boards to hear appeals from property owners.
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