There is an ongoing reassessment of property values in Monroe County where one was last completed in 1989.  That process began when the County Commissioners voted in June of 2016 to move forward with a revaluation and give the task to a contractor to handle the job of reassessing the more than 100,000 parcels in the County.  In the spring the process was in the data collection phase.  In 2016 the County collected $46 million in real estate taxes at a millage rate of 21.25 mills.  .

There is an ongoing court case over a possible reassessment in Beaver County where just before the start of the new year the Court of Common Pleas issued an order directing the County to carry out a reassessment of values, the first since 1982.  This past week the County government made an appeal to that Court (it did not appeal the decision to Commonwealth Court) over the testimony submitted by plaintiffs in the case and on the timeline of executing a contract with a firm to begin the reassessment process.  The County collected $48 million in real estate taxes at a millage rate of 22.2 mills in 2016.

This is not to imply that there is a wholesale geographic difference in how reassessments move forward.  There have been court ordered reassessments out east as well as west, and County government officials have opted to take action to update values without court intervention in all parts of the state as well.  These two examples, however, illustrate two very different approaches if values are updated in coming years: 2019 (which is when Monroe County’s are expected to go into effect) and 2020 (when Beaver County’s would, based on the Common Pleas Court order at present).  By that time, does anyone expect that the General Assembly will pass a law calling for a regular reassessment cycle for counties?