Monroe reassessment takes next step

Homeowners in Monroe County recently received a notice of their new “tentative property value” in the mail.

For the first time in 30 years, the county is updating the property values that are used to calculate school, municipal and county property taxes. The commissioners hope it will make property tax rates fairer to all homeowners in the county.

Since then, officials say the number one question they have heard from residents is: “Does this mean my property taxes are going up?”

Unfortunately, no one, not even the commissioners, will know that answer until mid-2020, when school districts complete their first budgets using the new values.

“It’s not that we have a secret number and we’re not telling them; we don’t truly know,” said John Moyer, commissioners’ chairman.

In the meantime, if a homeowner feels their “tentative property value” is inaccurate, they can set up an informal review with the firm conducting the reassessment. Reviews must be scheduled by April 1.

If you don’t object to the “tentative property value,” it will become your “assessed property value.” That is the number that school districts, towns and counties use to determine how much the owner pays in property taxes versus a neighbor who may have more land or a larger house.

The Monroe County commissioners decided to undertake the county’s first tax reassessment in 30 years in order to make tax bills fairer throughout the county. The commissioners felt that some people were being underbilled for their property taxes and others were being overbilled, and it was time to “reset the clock” on the assessments.

After spending more than a year gathering data about every property in the county, consultant Tyler Technologies sent out 100,000-plus letters last week identifying the “tentative property value” they plan to use for the reassessment.

The “assessed value” is what the county feels a property could fetch if it was sold on the open market today. Tyler Technologies determined the values based on factors including a visual inspection of a property, a questionnaire which was mailed to homeowners last summer and recent sale prices for similar homes in the county.

If a homeowner feels that the “tentative assessed value” is more than their home is worth on the market, or there were errors in their assessment, they can contact Tyler at 570-517-3895.

“It’s a tentative value, and we expect people to take a look at it and see if everything is accurate. If it isn’t they should call and schedule a time to sit down with some of the Tyler people to get that straightened out,” Moyer said. “And hopefully go away happy.”

Moyer said phone lines were busy last week but he expects that anyone who wants a review will get one.

In July, after the informal reviews, all Monroe County property owners will receive their assessed value, the number which will be used to calculate tax bills in the coming years.

Homeowners who think that is too high will still have another chance to appeal.

Right now, in Monroe County, the assessed value of a home is based on what the county thought your house was worth in 1989, when the last reassessment took place. Thousands of homes have been built since then, and many more have been reassessed because the homeowner successfully appealed to the county’s assessment appeals board.

To see how much the county thought your property was worth in 1989, just look at any recent tax bill. Under “assessed value” there are two sections, “building” and “land.” If you add them together, and multiply it by 4, that is how much the county thought your property would sell for in 1989.

Back then the county decided that the assessed value would be one quarter of the market value. That goes away under the new system. The market value equals the assessed value.

So while the assessed value is going up for everyone in the county, property tax millage will be going down to comply with state law.

The year after a reassessment, a taxing body can’t take in more than 10 percent more than it did the previous year, according to state law.

“Mathematically, if you say, ‘everybody’s assessed value is going up four times at a minimum, then the millage rate goes down precipitously,” Moyer said.