Schuylkill County’s property tax reassessment is nearing the home stretch.
Formal appeals — filed by more than 8,000 property owners — are ongoing and expected to continue through the end of October.
Property owners who filed appeals are contesting the new assessed values they received earlier this year, arguing the final determinations are inaccurate.
The County’s Tax Assessment Office is holding these formal appeal hearings in three batches. On Wednesday, Tim Barr, of Vision Government Solutions, the company that conducted the reassessment, said the first batch concluded in mid-September.
Soon after those hearings ended, property owners were mailed the appeals board’s decisions. Anyone still dissatisfied with their property valuation has 30 days from the date the board’s decision was mailed to file an appeal with the Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas.
For those in the first round of hearings, the deadline to file a court appeal is Oct. 8.
The second round of appeals hearings is wrapping up, and the County has a third and final batch scheduled to conclude by the end of October. Once those results are mailed, the same 30-day court appeal window applies. Barr said the second batch of rulings will be mailed in about 10 days.
During the first two weeks of November, Chief Tax Assessor Christine Zimmerman will audit the results of all hearings to ensure the data in the County’s system matches the appeals board’s rulings.
Once that audit is complete, the County can calculate its overall new assessment value and set a new millage rate. Municipalities will then be able to set their own millage rates based on that total.
Barr said the total value of property in the county is roughly five times higher than it was during the last reassessment 30 years ago. As a result, millage rates will drop to about one-fifth of their current levels.
The initial millage rate — which will take effect in early 2026 — must generate the same amount of revenue that the current rate brings in for 2025. Afterward, taxing bodies such as the County Commissioners and local municipalities can vote to increase property taxes, but those increases are capped at 10%.
School boards will set their new millage rates in the middle of 2026.
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