Apr 11, 2015 2 min read

I keep hearing different stories from Washington County’s commissioners concerning the inception of the countywide property reassessment. Recently, I actually heard the reassessment being blamed on a retired judge.

One statement that is very easy to verify was published in the Observer-Reporter on April 10, 2013, where Commissioner Larry Maggi stated in part, “At no time did the board of commissioners agree to reassess.”

I reviewed the facts about the reassessment on a computer at the prothonotary’s office. I discovered in the case file that on Nov. 25, 2008, the parties involved agreed to initiate a reassessment without going to trial, and it was presented to the judge.

Then, I found where the judge overseeing this case issued an order on Dec. 9, 2008 for all the parties involved to come in front of the court, because there may have been misrepresentations in the initial Nov. 25, 2008 agreement. The commissioners were actually given the opportunity by the judge to go into court to dispute the agreement. After that, I came across an affidavit signed by the county commissioners on Dec. 16, 2008 that was presented to the judge in response to the Dec. 9, 2008 order. The commissioners were aware that by signing the affidavit, it would result in a countywide property reassessment.

My main concern over this reassessment came when I discovered that the facts in this legal case file on record do not match the stories being spun publicly by Maggi and others.

No matter how anyone tries to characterize it, the fact remains that Washington County’s commissioners voluntarily entered into a legal binding agreement with the school districts involved to initiate a countywide property reassessment.

Rebecca L. Simpson

Washington