Another Reassessment in 5 Years? Schuylkill Commissioners Considering the Possibility

Schuylkill County’s next property tax reassessment could happen in as soon as five years.

Commissioners say if the next property tax reassessment happens in that time, it’ll cost less than the current reassessment and will result in far less extreme swings in property assessments and the bills that come with it.

“As soon as this reassessment is over, we’re going to address that,” Commissioners Chairman Larry Padora tells The Canary, responding to a question on why the board just doesn’t commit to conducting another reassessment in five years.

On Wednesday, Padora said publicly that other states do reassessments cyclically but in Pennsylvania, there really is no mandate that a county must conduct one. That’s how Schuylkill County was able to go 30 years since its last reassessment.

“It’s better to do it than wait 30 years again,” Commissioner Gary Hess says in response to the question on if he supports a new reassessment in five years.

Spot Assessments Threw Everything “Out of Whack”

One of the main contributors to some property owners in Schuylkill County seeing significant proposed changes in the tax bills because of the ongoing reassessment is because the last one happened in the mid-1990s.

Some property owners in Schuylkill County opened up their Final Assessment notices recently and saw that they’re going to owe two, three, four, or five times as much as they’ve been paying in property taxes in 2026.

Commissioners say that school districts that conducted spot assessments of properties sold since the last countywide reassessment contributed to these extreme changes in tax bills for next year, not the change in actual assessed value.

“The biggest problem is school districts are spot assessing and that’s what’s throwing this whole thing out of whack,” Commissioner Boots Hetherington says.

When a school orders a spot assessment on a property, it then gets taxed at a value more in line with today’s market prices. Meanwhile, properties that aren’t spot assessed continue to pay taxes based on market rates that were more accurate in the 1990s.

So, two similar properties in the same neighborhood could be paying two vastly different taxes if one of them was subject to a spot assessment.

Before moving forward with any plans for the next reassessment, Padora says he wants school districts to agree to pause spot assessments so property values remain consistent for all owners until the next countywide reassessment—possibly in five years.

Regular reassessments, according to Commissioners, would help correct these inequalities, minimizing disparities caused by spot assessments.

Commissioners Say State Needs to Fix Reassessment Rules, Funding

So, why did the County wait 30 years to conduct a reassessment?

The primary reason is because it was sued by Community Justice Project on behalf of three property owners who believed they were being unfairly taxed.

A settlement of that lawsuit resulted in Schuylkill County being forced to conduct a reassessment.

But another contributing factor to Schuylkill County waiting 30 years between reassessments is cost.

Hess notes that reassessment was discussed back in 2011, shortly after his initial election, but funding was a major obstacle then.

Schuylkill County is currently spending more than $7 million on the ongoing reassessment. Costs have risen significantly because the contracted company had to hire numerous data collectors to physically visit each property in the county.

If Commissioners approve a reassessment in the near future, this extensive process would not need to be repeated at the same scale, likely lowering costs to conduct it dramatically.

“Once you have the software set up, you can almost do it in-house,” Hess says.

However, budgeting for another reassessment, even if cheaper, remains a financial challenge.

Padora has repeatedly criticized lawmakers in Harrisburg over the state’s approach to reassessment funding. He suggests the state should permit counties to implement fees, such as on deed transfers, to help cover reassessment expenses or provide direct financial support.

“We can do it on our own but other states, they help fund it. Harrisburg has to fix this,” Padora says. “The counties are always at Harrisburg’s mercy. We can only do what they allow us to do and that’s it.”

Lancaster County, Commissioners point out, conducts reassessments every five years and budgets the cost incrementally between reassessments.

Hetherington notes Lancaster County even employs individuals within its own Tax Assessment office specifically to handle reassessments.

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