Hempfield tax assessment appeal program up for vote in January
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The future of Hempfield school district’s controversial tax assessment appeal program will be decided in 2020, after board members debated the process this week.
The program, adopted in 2015 to target under-assessed commercial and industrial parcels, essentially raises property taxes to what they would be if officials did a countywide reassessment — something that hasn’t happened since 1973.
The program became widely criticized in 2017, when the board added residential properties to the program after a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling cleared the way.
“The point, I think, for this whole program that seems to be suspect is in business, you have shrink and you have loss and you have things like that,” said school board member Mike Alfery. “When you look at this, if you look at this like a business, what are we doing to attract more revenue? And the first answer for everybody is raise taxes because that’s what school districts do.”
Since 2015, the program has brought in more than $650,000 in additional revenue for the district. But, according to district Business Manager Wayne Wismar, that income is offset by the more than $144,500 the district lost through reverse tax appeals in 2019 and the beginning of 2020.
Properties that reach a $250,000 differential — or the difference between the fair market value and selling price — qualify for a reassessment. That number was raised last year from $100,000 after several residents complained, resulting in 28 residential properties being removed from the list, according to Wismar.
Four residential properties were appealed since the change. Four are in the process, he said.
But for Alfery and newly elected board President Tony Bompiani, it is unfair for some properties to be targeted based on that differential.
“This thing won’t be settled, and settled properly, until somebody higher up in the state, more than likely the county, or the township gets involved and they start reassessing everybody,” Bompiani said. “You can say a $250,000 appeal program is fair because you put a margin in there. Me? I don’t think it’s fair. It should be everyone over $1. If you’re going to do it, do it for everybody.”
Other board members, including newly elected Jennifer Bretz and Vince DeAugustine, hope to end the practice due to the impact it could have on development in the township.
Balancing a budget
For members Sonya Brajdic, Jeanne Smith and Diane Ciabattoni, the point of the program is to steady rising taxes for the community as a whole and to keep from cutting additional programs and staff.
While taxes steadied in the 2019-20 budget, officials reduced six positions — five paraprofessionals and one building aide.
“This last year has been probably one of the toughest because we cut things that hurt,” Ciabattoni said. “We had already gotten, as they said, the low hanging fruit. It is almost heartbreaking to know that we are hurting the kids in this school.”
Smith responded, “And that we are hurting individuals who are losing jobs because we have to cut positions that we would like to keep.”
About 30% of the board’s budget comes from state funds, according to Superintendent Tammy Wolicki. That means the district has to generate 70% of its income from local sources in order to pay teacher salaries and benefits, which are a large chunk of the budget, she said.
“I think if we’re looking at what options do we have, and we’re saying we have some properties within our area which may be under assessed, this is a way to be fair to the majority of taxpayers,” Wolicki said.
The board will vote on the program 7 p.m. Jan. 20 at the administration building near the high school, 4347 Route 136.