Seniors Say: Lower My Assessment!

From the BCCT:

Reassessment group seeks funds
The seniors are suing Bucks County to force reassessment. The county has said reassessment would cost upwards of $10 million and take years.
By JENNA PORTNOY

A group of seniors suing Bucks County to force a countywide reassessment have officially put out the collection plate.

“I think the point needs to be made, this is not a pipe dream,” said Janis Shuter, one of 25 residents of the Village at Flowers Mill, a Middletown age-restricted community, who attended a meeting Thursday night. “This is not a hopeless cause, but one thing we need to accomplish this is money.”

Legal fees have already cost the Committee for Equitable Reassessment in Bucks County about $70,000 in donations from hundreds of homeowners.

According to a projection by their attorney, Denis Dunn, the group needs at least $51,580 more to see the case to fruition. The estimate grows by $6,670 if Dunn completes eight remaining depositions.

The suit, which was filed in 2004 and is still in the discovery phase, was spearheaded by residents Joan and Sy Goldstein. The couple has written endless letters pleading for cash from their neighbors, residents in Shady Brook, also in Middletown, and Heritage Creek in Warwick as well as other individuals who have pitched in to finance the litigation.

“Without the funds we can’t do anything,” said Sy Goldstein, who produced an inch-thick stack of bills.

The Goldsteins, like many of their neighbors, realized the disparity in assessments when they sold their Levittown home in 2001 and bought a newly constructed home. Since then, tax bills have skyrocketed from $5,000 to roughly $7,500.

The inequitable bills are especially painful considering how few township and borough services age-restricted developments use, said Jon Sherman, who has lived in Shady Brook with his wife Harriet for six years. They pay for private trash collection, street maintenance and lighting and don’t have children to stress the school system; they use only the public library and fire and police services.

“What we’re really fighting for is for everyone to pay their fair share,” he said.

The last countywide property reassessment was in 1972. That means the owners of older homes in neighborhoods where sale prices have skyrocketed pay taxes based on assessments set decades ago, when sale prices were far lower than they are today.

Those who live in newly constructed homes — such as the residents suing for a reassessment — often have higher assessments and bear much more of the tax burden than their neighbors.

The state has a formula to account for the difference over time, but many residents believe too many years have passed to make it relevant. Homes are reassessed only when newly built or renovated.

The three-member Board of Assessment Appeals hears appeals from residents who made changes, like adding a room or finishing the basement, and objected to their increased assessment. Members are appointed by county commissioners.

The county has eschewed reassessment due, in part, to the expense and time it would take to re-evaluate the county’s 230,000 taxable parcels.

Guy Matthews, formerly county solicitor and now an assistant solicitor, has said the process could cost upwards of $10 million and take years. The new assessments could then grow out of whack in a relatively short time, he said.

Donations can be sent to CERBC at 314 Starflower Lane in Langhorne PA 19047.