Blair County is going through property reassessment for the first time since 1958.  Out of all of the counties in the state, Blair County has gone the longest without going through reassessment.

 

County Commissioners say people are worried about tax increases, but that’s not necessarily going to happen.  Since properties have not been assessed since 1958, values and taxes could currently be off as much as 60%.  With reassessment, people will see an increase in property value, but taxes could increase or decrease, depending on how their property compares to the average property in Blair County. 

 

Terry Tomassetti, Blair County Commissioner, said, “We basically have a 60% error, permeating through our taxes and assessed values.  There’s no question you have to do it just for fairness.”

 

The County has hired an outside firm, Evaluator Services and Technology, to collect the data from more than 60,000 properties.  They’ve finished that step, and soon they will be sending out information to the public on the new value of their property.  

 

Tim Barr, VP at Evaluator Services and Technology said, “The greater the time between reassessments, the bigger the sticker shock is going to be and value, the more difficult the data collection is going to be and the more confusion there’s going to be for the property owner.”   

 

If home-owners disagree with the reassessment, they have three ways to contest it: an informal complaint, a formal complaint, and even a court appeal. 

 

Barr said, “The number one misunderstanding about reassessments is that it’s a tax increase.  It’s actually not.  Someone’s taxes may go up but others will go down.  So that the revenue that’s collected by the taxing bodies stays the same.  State law requires that.”  Barr also says every property owner who wants to have a formal appeal will get one.  

 

The County Commissioners and the assessment firm both say their goal is to help make the process as simple as possible.  They said upfront that they will make mistakes, but that they’ll work with homeowners to correct them. They will be holding meetings at all of the seven school districts in the County.  Those meetings are set to take place in May.  They will also have space in the Blair County Convention Center to address issues in person. 

 

Click here for more information from the County.