Property owners challenging new assessed values calculated during Lackawanna County’s first comprehensive reassessment since 1968 face a Friday appeals deadline if they plan to make their cases at formal hearings starting next month and continuing through October.
The county had received about 2,500 appeals as of Tuesday morning and expects at least 650 or so more by Friday, assessment Director Patrick Tobin said. And while an influx of additional appeals is possible before the deadline, the county remains on pace to receive fewer appeals than officials and experts predicted it might as the reassessment project nears completion.
“It’s absolutely astoundingly good news,” Tobin said.
Those who plan to appeal their new assessed values but have yet to formally file must do so by 4 p.m. Friday, he said. Appeals received thereafter by mail will be accepted if they’re postmarked on or before Aug. 1.
Tyler Technologies, the firm the county hired in 2022 for the yearslong reassessment project, and the county assessor’s office established the new values, which should reflect the fair market value of a property as of June 30, 2024. Letters the county mailed property owners in June include their property’s new assessment, a combination of the assessed values of the land and any buildings on the parcel.
Unless changed on appeal, the new total assessed value listed in the letter will take effect next year and be applied to yet-undetermined future tax rates to generate property tax bills. How one’s individual tax bill may change remains unclear, as county, school and municipal tax rates will fall as assessed values increase to ensure the reassessment process is essentially revenue-neutral for taxing bodies. Those taxing bodies won’t set next year’s rates before new assessments are certified Nov. 14, following the formal appeals process.
A general rule of thumb is that tax bills for about a third of properties go up after reassessment, a third go down and a third remain more or less the same. Property owners should not apply their new assessments to current tax rates, as the result will be inaccurate.
Instructions for filing residential and commercial appeals, and the forms themselves, are available online at lackawannacounty.org by clicking the “Assessment” link under the government tab at the top of the site.
Reassessment appeals hearings will begin Monday at 10 a.m. and continue through October. All hearings will take place at the Marketplace at Steamtown, 300 Lackawanna Ave., Scranton, in the county-leased hearing space located next to the Electric City Aquarium.
Appeals will be heard on weekdays by the county’s permanent appeals board and several auxiliary boards commissioners filled in recent months. Those boards have the right to increase, decrease or leave unchanged an appealing property owner’s assessment.
Property owners unsatisfied with the results of their hearings have the right to challenge their assessments in county court.