Jan 7, 2016 3 min read

The Washington County Tax Revenue Department and Tyler Technologies Inc. are conducting a second series of public meetings about the countywide reassessment project.

The meetings are designed to provide residents and taxpayers with an update on the status of the project, to outline a road map of what happens next and to engage in a brief question-and-answer session. Residents can attend any meeting regardless of where they live or whether they own real estate.

Washington County commissioners in 2013 embarked on a $6.96 million reassessment project because of a court case filed by Washington and McGuffey school districts. The last reassessment in Washington County was completed in 1981.

The county formerly based assessments on 25 percent of a property’s fair market value as of Jan. 1, 1981. Under the new system, the figure is being changed to 100 percent of fair market value as of July 1, 2015. Officials said millage will have to be reduced commensurately.

There are approximately 120,000 parcels of land in Washington County, about 80,000 of which are residential.

Tyler employees completed a municipality-by-municipality data collection during the summer, and since then they have been performing valuation analysis using a computer-assisted mass appraisal.

Tyler appraisers have been analyzing local building costs, property sales, commercial income, expense information and other valuation factors to establish preliminary market values. These initial values are then reviewed to check for accuracy and consistency.

In December, Tyler began submitting preliminary values to Robert Neil, former the chief assessor of Washington County for review and approval. Neil is now serving as the county’s consultant for the project.

Information about new property assessments will be mailed to all property owners – in several staggered batches – beginning in March, said Bradley Boni, Washington County chief assessor. These values will first be used to calculate new tax bills starting with the 2017 tax year.

Informal value review meetings will be conducted by Tyler in March, April and May in the Chapman Building, West Beau and Jefferson Avenue, according to Wesley Graham, project supervisor for Tyler. If a property owner is not satisfied with the results of an informal review, he or she may file a formal appeal with the county tax revenue department.

Here is the schedule for informational meetings:

• 7:30 p.m. Monday, Chartiers-Houston School District administration offices, 2020 W. Pike St., Houston;

• 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Peters Township Middle School auditorium, 625 E. McMurray Road, McMurray;

• 6 p.m. Jan. 19, Canon-McMillan High School auditorium, 314 Elm St. Extension, Canonsburg;

• 7 p.m. Jan. 20, Ringgold School District central administration building, 400 Main St., New Eagle;

• 7 p.m. Jan. 25, Bethlehem-Center School District board meeting room, 194 Crawford Road, Fredericktown;

Meetings were previously held in November and December in the Washington, Bentworth, Charleroi, Avella Area, Fort Cherry and Burgettstown school districts.