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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wendolowski </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_Wendolowski-Ray.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wendolowski </caption0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_Argall-David-a-state-senator.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Argall </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_Argall-David-a-state-senator.jpg</photo1><caption1>Argall </caption1></div></div>
<p>Pennsylvania school districts and municipalities are fighting to keep their right to challenge property assessments they believe are set too low.</p><p>The Wilkes-Barre Area and Hazleton Area school districts are among several taxing bodies statewide that have been exercising their authority to file such &#8220;reverse appeals,&#8221; seeking increases on larger commercial properties.</p><p>New proposed state legislation attempts to impose drastic limitations on when reverse appeals can be pursued, arguing the current practice leads to unfair spot assessment by allowing taxing bodies to randomly single out unchanged properties for revaluing outside a countywide reassessment.</p><p>Sponsored by state Sen. David G. Argall, R-Schuylkill County, Senate Bill 877 would allow school districts and municipalities to file reverse appeals only the year after a countywide reassessment or when a property is improved or subdivided.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre Area School District Solicitor Ray Wendolowski said the legislation would leave taxing bodies powerless to force properties that have increased in value to pay their fair share until counties decide to reassess.</p><p>Counties can&#8217;t file reverse appeals because they set assessments. Outside of countywide reassessments, counties can&#8217;t raise individual assessments unless property owners build or expand structures, officials say.</p><p>Luzerne County officials put off a reassessment for more than four decades before the revaluation in 2009, and there are no plans in the works to conduct another reassessment because county officials concluded assessments generally have remained in line with sales prices.</p><p><strong>Fair taxation issue</strong></p><p>&#8220;If this statute passes, many properties will escape fair taxation for a long time because counties are not in the market to do reassessments,&#8221; Wendolowski said. &#8220;As a result, money is going to sit in the pockets of large commercial interests instead of being paid to taxing bodies.&#8221;</p><p>Wendolowski, who also has been retained to assist with reverse appeals in the Wyoming Valley West and Scranton school districts, points to the Sherman Hills apartment complex in Wilkes-Barre as an example of a property that would have kept its assessment around $7.3 million without Wilkes-Barre Area&#8217;s reverse appeal, even though the property sold for $15.8 million in April 2014.</p><p>In response to the reverse appeal, the county assessment appeals board upped the assessment to $13.9 million last October, records show.</p><p>The district has pending appeals seeking assessment increases for 14 entities &#8212; six retail and commercial hubs, two eateries, four pharmacies and two apartment properties in Wilkes-Barre city and Plains and Wilkes-Barre townships, records show.</p><p>The Wilkes-Barre Area School Board last week approved Wendolowski&#8217;s request to file reverse appeals on the Wyoming Valley Mall and Home Depot store in Wilkes-Barre Township, and he expects more before the county&#8217;s Aug. 1 appeal deadline.</p><p>Both taxing bodies and property owners must file appeals by Aug. 1 for changes to take effect the following year.</p><p>The Wyoming Valley Mall in Wilkes-Barre Township, the second highest assessed commercial property in the county, had obtained a $13 million reduction at court-level mediation in 2012, bringing its total assessment to $76.1 million.</p><p>Mall attorneys had supplied an appraisal in 2009 valuing the property at $63.5 million, records show. However, the mall owners indicated in other documents filed with the government unrelated to the tax appeal that the property was appraised at $122 million in 2013 and expected to have an appraised value of $131 million as of Aug. 1, 2015, Wendolowski said.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s something not right there, and we intend to rectify it,&#8221; he said.</p><p>School districts statewide would lose billions of dollars in revenue over a decade if they were banned from filing reverse appeals on properties that have not changed their footprint through new construction, he said.</p><p><strong>Bill&#8217;s purpose</strong></p><p>The proposed legislation stemmed in part from complaints that taxing bodies in some other areas routinely were targeting residential properties for reverse appeals when they sold, he said.</p><p>Wendolowski said that doesn&#8217;t happen locally. Wilkes-Barre Area obtains input from a national tax consulting firms on prospective under-assessed properties and focuses on larger commercial properties likely to generate at least $10,000 more in school property tax payments annually if a reverse appeal succeeds.</p><p>He plans to suggest a legislation amendment to address concerns about the impact of reverse appeals on residential property owners: prohibit reverse appeals on any owner-occupied residences or farmsteads signed up for the gambling-funded homestead tax break that do not have new construction.</p><p>Senate Bill 877 is sitting in an appropriations committee but likely will advance to legislators soon, he said. Other proposed state legislation to stop or limit reverse appeals has failed in the past, he said.</p><p>&#8220;It seems like every year we have a fight,&#8221; he said.</p><p><strong>Spot appeals</strong></p><p>The Pennsylvania Apartment Association, which has a political action committee, has been pushing for the legislation. The organization says the spot appeals &#8220;distort balance and uniformity.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Pennsylvania school districts can demand tax increases from one property, give other properties a pass, and answer to no one about their reasons,&#8221; the association said in a public release.</p><p>Wendolowski maintains the reverse appeals keep the playing field level because property owners file appeals seeking reductions but not increases.</p><p>&#8220;For school districts there are only two ways to raise revenue &#8212; raise taxes or file for assessment increases. We&#8217;re not asking any property owner to pay more than what their property is worth. I don&#8217;t know how anybody could complain about that,&#8221; he said.</p><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre Area battling to keep right to challenge low assessments