Greene County’s tax base continues to decline
WAYNESBURG – Overall, Greene County’s tax base continues to decline, according to certified assessment values for 2004 that the county’s chief assessor presented to the commissioners Thursday. H. John Frazier told commissioners Farley Toothman and Scott Blair that while budgets in the county won’t be affected to the extent they were after last year’s reassessment when the county gained about $385 million in assessed values, the tax values have undergone some significant changes. Commissioner Dave Coder was absent.
“Some of the school districts have a little bit of a gain to them, mostly in Central Greene and Jefferson-Morgan,” Frazier said. “But places like Cumberland Township took a big hit in mineral value due to the closing of the Dilworth mine. That coal that is in Cumberland was active coal, and now it is inactive, so Carmichaels School District took a pretty good hit and lost about $4.5 million in coal value, but they did have some surface growth to help to minimize the effect.”
Frazier said Franklin Township lost some taxable value from Emerald Mine, and the CONSOL Dilworth mine closing caused more than $20 million in lost taxable value, including $3.5 million in Cumberland Township.
Frazier said the total assessed taxable value for the county in 2004 is about $1.3 billion, down about $34 million from values in 2003.
In total taxable value, most of the five school districts took sizable hits. West Greene dropped to $392 million, Southeastern Greene dipped to $111 million and Carmichaels Area also slipped in assessed values, according to the chief assessor.
Frazier said that the gains and declines are difficult to gauge because of the many changes made to the values for 2003.
While the county saw some modest gains, Frazier said that overall the tax base continues to dwindle across the county.
“We still are operating with more tax base going out of the county than with new tax base coming in,” Frazier said. “The (coal) trains keep pulling out, and that is our money going right out the door.”
But Frazier said that while the county’s tax base continues to decline, the reductions should not hurt local budgets too much.
“I don’t think any municipality or any one school district was hit so hard that it will have a major impact,” he said.
Frazier said that some litigation issues also could affect the certified values.
“The Hatfield’s Ferry power plant and Allegheny Energy will have a significant effect on the Southeastern Greene School District,” Frazier said.
He said that the county had assessed the Monongahela Township plant’s value at about $70 million before a court ruled last year that the actual value of the power station was about $8 million.
Additionally, he said the county probably will have disputes over the taxation of cellular towers and over coal bed methane gas, especially in Wayne Township. He said the methane gas dispute probably will reach the highest state levels before it is resolved.
Frazier said that in addition to losing tax value from reassessments and mine closings, the county no longer can tax natural gas and lost about $3.5 million in taxable reserves on gas. He said Franklin Township alone lost about $300,000 in taxable reserves from the court-ordered stoppage of the natural gas tax, and Cumberland Township lost about $58,000.
Frazier said the figures should remain at the projected levels and that any changes to the certified values would result from a mathematical error or from a board of assessment appeals or court order.
The commissioners approved the certified assessment values.