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I found former state Rep. Kevin Blaum’s commentary “Reassessment trumps usual county woes” in The Times Leader (July 13) an incredibly uninformative essay on the state of the ongoing reassessment of Luzerne County real estate.
One would conclude that he, having years of experience as a state legislator, would be knowledgeable on the requirement to periodically reassess properties. It is disingenuous for him to lay the reasons for reassessment as “being done on the say so of one company called 21st Century Appraisals Inc. and with the permission of the Luzerne County Commissioners.” When, in fact and in law, all counties are required to periodically reassess all properties within their boundaries.
Had elected predecessors of the current commissioners applied the law over the many years since the last assessment, Kevin Blaum and all residents would have experienced the process and we would not be in the present pickle.
When counties periodically reassess, a third of the values go up, a third go down and a third remain the same. However, sticker shock as Luzerne County is experiencing only occurs when there are long periods between reassessments.
Rather than pressing the commissioners to stop the process, we should praise them for their courage to work through the process and correct a longstanding problem that has many inequities that have adversely affected property tax equity and the region’s economic development.
I offer kudos to commissioners Maryanne Petrilla and Stephen Urban for their collective courage to see the process to completion while ensuring an open process that protects taxpayer rights.