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News Release Contact: Scott Ott, vice chairman 610-810-1688Lehigh County Board of Commissioners

Lehigh County Commissioners Vote 8-0 to Restore Fairness to Property Assessments-----

Process Begun in 2010 Will Go Forward(January 26, 2011) -- Lehigh County Commissioners last night unanimously voted to goahead with restoring fairness and uniformity to real estate assessments, after twoweeks of considering the County Executive's request to delay indefinitely thereassessment that he initiated in 2010.The measure, sponsored by five commissioners and passed on an 8-0 vote, will notchange revenue to the county, school districts, townships or boroughs. It will shift someof the burden from taxpayers who have been overpaying relative to the value of theirproperties. About 58 percent of taxpayers should see their tax bills go down in 2013, theother 42 percent, should increase. About 78 percent of changes to county taxes will fallwithin a range of plus or minus $100 annually. Changes to school and other municipaltaxes vary by district, township and borough, but all must be 'revenue neutral' to thetaxing body.Pennsylvania's Constitution requires uniformity in taxation. With property taxes, the only

way to maintain that fairness is periodic reassessments. But the county has notperformed a reassessment since 1991, and by 2010 only 18 percent of properties wereaccurately valued, resulting in widespread inequity in the tax burden. As a result, thenumber of assessment appeals filed by property owners more than tripled in a singleyear to more than 700 in 2010. Successful appeals reduced revenue to the county andother taxing bodies, costing the County more than a million dollars per year, andschools millions more. According to one estimate, the loss from appeals to all governingbodies in the county since 2007 may exceed $50 million. However, that doesn't reduce

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government spending, since school boards, the county and others can, and did, raisetaxes to make up the loss. "The reality is that reassessment is already happening," said Commissioner ViceChairman Scott Ott, "but only for the few that have the knowledge and resources to

challenge their assessments, mostly businesses. That further skews the tax burden,placing more on the private homeowners, many of whom have been paying inequitablyhigher taxes for years.Before the Commissioners' January 11 meeting, Executive Don Cunningham hadattempted to remove the reassessment bill from their agenda, claiming 'market volatility'made it difficult to establish accurate property values. However, Cunningham'sadministration provided no data to justify interrupting a process that had alreadyconsumed $305,000 in taxpayer money, and offered no date when the process couldrestart. That night, Ott revived the bill for a first reading, in the interest of transparency,to induce the administration to make its case for delay with actual data. The

Commissioners also strengthened the language of the bill to 'direct' rather than merely'authorize' the Executive to carry out the assessment, due to the administration'sreluctance.Last night, the County's Director of Administration, Tom Muller, made what severalcommissioners said was an excellent, even-handed presentation, full of relevant data.During public comment time, a certified appraiser with decades of local experience toldthe board that Muller had effectively, if perhaps unintentionally, made the case to goforward with the reassessment, since the three key measures of reliability were all wellwithin acceptable ranges, and one of them was 'perfect'.Ott said the unanimous vote by the Board indicates that the decision was made basedon the actual data to restore fairness, rather than political considerations."It's a serious issue and tough decision," said Ott. "We're legally, Constitutionallyobligated to keep this tax fair and uniform. The Board demonstrated courage, andappropriate independence of the Executive, by doing the right thing."Notices of the new assessed values will go out in February, and taxpayers will have untilAugust 1 to appeal if they think the new value is inaccurate. An appeal starts informally-- a visit to the county assessment office. If the taxpayer still feels the assessment isinaccurate, he goes to an appeals board, and ultimately can appeal that ruling to the

court.As a result of the overall increase in property values in the county, and a calculationchange made last year that applies the tax to 100 percent of the assessed value, ratherthan 50 percent, the tax rate percentage (millage) is projected drop from 11.9 to 3.83 in2013. Again, these changes will not change the amount of revenue that taxing bodiescollect.

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While County Executive Cunningham has threatened to veto the bill, theCommissioners require only six votes to override a veto, so such a move would fail, andwould serve only to delay the distribution of assessment notices, and to cut short thetime that taxpayers have to appeal."The County Executive made a solid case in 2010 for the necessity and urgency ofreassessment to restore fairness," said Ott. "Last night his administration showed usdata that supported moving forward. The commissioners have acted courageously withfull knowledge of the implications. We're hopeful that the Executive will fulfill his roleunder the Home Rule Charter and carry out the policy established by the unanimous, bi-partisan vote of the Board."

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