Nary a word uttered against reassessment
Not that we’re trying to stir up trouble, but we can’t help but comment on the silence that has greeted the county’s reassessment mailings. We had expected mass kicking and screaming, protests in the street and burning of effigies. You know the same kind of greeting property owners gave elected officials recently in Allegheny County. Or even the type of grassroots movement that halted the late 1980s attempt at reassessment tried here in Fayette County. But hardly a peep has been chirped since the county started mailing batches of notices several weeks ago. By week’s end just about every property owner will have received a letter stating the new value and how this would change tax bills due the county.
To mention the silence now is akin to tiptoeing across the bedroom of a sleeping giant. The county might just make it to the door without difficulty or the giant might awaken and begin to bellow.
Some have speculated that taxpayers might not be that aroused because the county property tax bill is rather small when compared to the school tax bill, and that if people only knew how much more they might be paying the noise would be deafening.
We don’t buy that.
People are smart enough to know that if their county tax bill were going up 5 percent, it would stand to reason that school taxes and municipal taxes would rise accordingly.
We think that so few are yelling and screaming because the county commissioners have done an admirable job from Day 1 by selecting a competent reassessment firm, Cole Layer Trumble, and hiring a public relations spokeswoman to step everyone through the process. Countless public meetings were held with the county taking the message on the road to each municipality, explaining how the information was gathered, how values were determined and now how to dispute the numbers.
No one, at this point, is surprised or perplexed as to what to do. About a third of us won’t be paying any more or any less than we already have. A third of us have been paying too much in taxes all along and will catch a break. And a third of us have been paying too little and the system finally caught up to us. Many in the last category knew this all along.
There are some with legitimate gripes. Some who live in former coal patch towns complain that the new market values are way too high but the county has offered remedies to dispute the numbers.
Right now property owners have a chance through an informal review to attempt to have disputes settled before the commissioners adopt the new values. But those who still aren’t satisfied can take it to the next step by filing an appeal.
Once again the county is attempting to make this as painless and as less time consuming as possible by appointing four auxiliary tax assessment appeals boards to wade through the appeals. Again this is the right move in showing property owners that fresh eyes will review each dispute and weigh the values. With so many built-in protections to ensure the county arrives at the fairest reevaluation process, property owners must feel confident in the system and find little with which to complain.