Andy Close
WARREN, Pa. – The Warren County Commissioners approved a tentative timeline for property reassessment during Wednesday’s meeting.
“The schedule is simple,” said Commissioner Jeff Eggleston. “The resolution lays out the rough background of the need for reassessment. We look at this as a collaborative effort to move this forward.”
The resolution also calls for the Warren County School District to pass a couple of small pieces of legislation, which include a landbank initiative as well as a Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) program.
“My assumption is that they will pass that before the end of the year, which will set the stage for the Director of Finance to initiate reassessment.”
Warren County hasn’t had a property assessment since 1989.
“This does not mean a tax increase,” said Commissioner Ben Kafferlin. “If it does raise your taxes, it means you’ve been paying under your fair share. More than likely, more people’s taxes are going to go down than get raised. That’s a positive.”
Going forward, it’s suggested that the county have a reassessment every seven years, Kafferlin noted during Monday’s work session.
“This resets the landscape so we don’t have the challenges to the assessments like we’ve had in the past,” Commissioner Tricia Durbin said. That’s also a positive for the community and the county.”
Eggleston said the goal is to finalize the reassessment by 2024.
“That schedule will be dedicated by the contractor that is hired, and it’s possible it could go beyond 2024,” Eggleston said.
CREATION OF LANDBANK APPROVED
A county landbank that has been in the works was also approved during Wednesday’s meeting.
“The county RDA will have an additional agency that will be the Warren County Landbank,” Eggleston explained during a City of Warren Council meeting in June. “There would be separate books and a separate board, but it will be pretty much the same. What that landback does is give RDA authority to address blight and redevelopment on a larger scale.
“The first step is to get involved in the tax sale process and get involved with tax claims. This would allow the RDA to work with the tax claim bureau to get involved earlier and get ahead of other bidders. We don’t want property to get bought by people who don’t want to do anything with it or have the best intentions. It makes it easier to own and transfer property.
“When a property transferred in a municipality that has a co-op with RDA, half of the taxes for five years go back to RDA. They take a house, rehab it, and then re-sell it. That’s a really important piece to this. It’s another funding mechanism.”
