By Tricia Pursell
HUMMELS WHARF — An increasing number of Valley property owners are appealing current county tax assessments, contesting their real estate taxes are too high and do not reflect the fair market value.
On Tuesday, Snyder County Commissioners spoke of a large number of appeals they had received from the majority of stores at the Susquehanna Valley Mall.
“Every store, except for a few, are appealing,” said Bob Cravitz, county solicitor.
Mall management filed their assessment appeal prior to the Sept. 1 deadline, according to Wendy Cook, acting assessor for Snyder County, so if they win their appeal, lower tax rates will be billed for the 2010 tax year.
According to Cook, the stores have been paying the same rate for more than 10 years, since the newest addition had been built.
All the stores, including the anchor stores of J.C. Penney, Bon-Ton, Sears and Boscov’s, have appealed for a lower rate. Smaller food places, Weis, and the Cinema Center have not appealed.
Mall management officials did not return calls for comment last week.
Cook, a 15-year employee, and another 22-year employee in the county assessor’s office, said they do not remember the mall ever before appealing their assessment.
For this year, Snyder County received 31 assessment appeals, of which 20 were denied, compared to 26 in 2008, of which seven were denied. In 2008, four of 16 exemption requests were denied, and of the 16 requests for exemption for 2009, two were denied and two were partially approved by the board of appeals.
Only one appeal request in 2008 went to court, Cook said.
Lately, there have been more commercial than residential appeals, which Cook said, when won by the appellant, have a huge effect on the three taxing bodies sharing the tax revenue.
For commercial properties in Monroe Township, she said the county receives 24 percent of the revenue, Monroe Township 2 percent, and the Selinsgrove School District 74 percent.
In Northumberland, the majority of appeals are also commercial, said Al Bressi, the county’s chief assessor, who calls them the “big-box stores.”
“They carry the larger individual assessments,” he said.
When no settlement is reached, the commercial or residential taxpayer then takes the process to a higher level — common pleas court. The county must then defend in a court of law what they believe to be the proper assessment for a parcel, and professional appraisals and court costs are then involved.
“It’s costly for the county, costly for everybody involved,” Bressi said.
Snyder County Commissioner Malcolm Derk agreed: “Large commercial properties likely pay tens of thousands in legal and appraisal fees if they are bringing in experts.”
This year, Northumberland County has received 33 appeal requests. One company represents nine of those individual parcels. Approximately 25 of them are commercial properties.
The county will know Dec. 4 which of those cases will be settled without going to court.
The number is up from the previous year, he said, and he blames the economy, which has forced companies to look for ways to “try to hang on.”
“I think that was coming to a head,” he added.
In Montour County, 19 assessment appeals were received for 2009, compared to 10 in 2008. Of those 19 requests, eight were decreased, and two were changed to a tax exemption status.
Most of these requests were for residential properties, said Deputy Tax Claim Director Michele Sharrow. In 2006, when the county conducted a reassessment, her office dealt with a larger number of appeals.
On Tuesday, Snyder County Commissioner Joe Kantz called assessment appeals “standard procedure right now, because of the economy.”
In the case of nearly the entire Susquehanna Valley Mall lowering their tax rates via the appeal process, Derk said they do not yet know what the outcome will be.
If the case ends up in court, the county, school district and township will share the cost of a professional appraisal, which the judge will compare to an appraisal conducted by the firm hired by the appellant.
“If the county’s appraisal comes in lower than the value already assigned, the county will lose property tax revenue,” Derk said. The results of that appraisal have not yet been received, he added.
