Voters in the northeast county of Lackawanna will decide this fall (in little over three months time) whether they want the County to conduct its first reassessment in five decades.

We wrote a blog in July noting that the board of commissioners approved a motion to move forward with the question–the actual wording of which asks voters to approve incurring debt of no more than $13 million in order to bring values up to date.  One commissioner noted that the dollar amount is not valid since no bid has been solicited (that number came from research done by staff for the board of commissioners) and that the mention of the predetermined ratio (the ratio of assessed to market value) in the question was confusing.  That same commissioner wanted to move the question to the spring ballot, but failed in his attempt.

Would a voter be in favor of a reassessment if it ultimately cost $9 million in order to update the old values, but not if it cost $13 million to do so?  That could be part of the consideration that comes into play by putting a dollar figure into the question instead of just asking a “yes or no” on reassessment.

Thus the County’s taxpayers will have the opportunity to attend public information sessions, view a video (which was approved in a separate action by the commissioners) and do a little research on their own to get a sense of determining how a reassessment will affect their property values and taxes.