Nov 29, 2016 5 min read

Although Washington County commissioners signed a $6.96 million contract with Tyler Technologies Inc. in 2013 for the first countywide property reassessment in 35 years, extra costs outside of the original contract have tacked on more than $1.6 million.

At the request of the Observer-Reporter, county Controller Michael Namie and Deputy Controller Joshua Hatfield provided a breakdown of reassessment expenditures from March 22, 2009, through Nov. 18 of this year.

Although the controller’s office list of costs, which includes 16 categories from advertising to wages, totals $8.75 million, that includes the $6.96 million original contract with Tyler. A few months ago, however, the county extended Tyler’s contact, adding another $386,674 so that Tyler employees could testify as expert witnesses, explaining how they reached the values they placed on properties as part of property owners’ appeals to Washington County Court, bringing the total paid to Tyler, including the reassessment contract, to $7,346,674 when “support services” are added.

In June, the county asked Tyler Technologies to provide two “assessment specialists” to assist in complex assessment appeals. The cost is $1,200 per day, per specialist. Tyler can substitute personnel, so the contract actually specifies “person days,” and allows Tyler to invoice the county monthly for services performed.

The county also will be paying ongoing software maintenance costs for the computerized database, known as iasWorld software, which lists all properties within the county along with their many characteristics.

According to the controller’s office, this figure turned out to be $386,674, bringing the total of costs above and beyond the $6.96 million contract with Tyler Technologies to $1,614,378.

The second-largest expenditure related to the reassessment was $268,000 for what the controller’s office labeled “mineral mapping and valuation services,” meaning the value of coal.

In May of last year, Washington County entered into a contract with Research Technologies Corp. of State College, Centre County, which specializes in mineral appraisals, to update records related to coal. RTC researched deeds related to coalfields, prepared maps and is to monitor mining activity on and beneath parcels of land. The county agreed to pay 30 months’ worth of maintenance fees through the end of 2017, totaling $60,000.

Coal is assessed on an income approach to valuation, according to experts in the field. The calculation to determine a per-acre value takes into account factors including the price of coal on the open market, its quality and marketability, a mine’s productivity and interest rates. Coal companies also have the option to receive permits for new areas of coal they expect to mine relatively soon, changing the coal’s taxable status from reserve to active. Active coal is given a higher assessed value.

Washington County Commission Chairman Larry Maggi last week fumed about the cost of the endeavor.

“We had to hire an expert,” he said. “It was part of the reassessment process we had to do. There are only a few groups that do it, and they charge a lot.”

The appointment of extra, three-person panels to hear the first level of property assessment appeals, which ended Oct. 31, cost $227,162. Maggi characterized these and other expenditures as “all part of the horrible process we were forced to do. The costs are probably going to go higher.”

Another large category of Washington County assessment-related expenditures was pictometry, aerial photography performed in 2009 and 2013 by Pictometry International Corp. of Rochester, N.Y., at a cost of $293,568.

Aerial photography can determine if structures have been built without being placed on tax rolls, or to detect any violations in the state’s Clean and Green program that gives a tax break to agricultural properties. Aerial images would be used to place a value on property only if a property owner denied data collectors access.

Pictometry images can be used for purposes other than property tax assessments. Planners can plot the best site for a new building or road, and they can be used by emergency management officials when coordinating response to a disaster.

Equipment rental, repair services, wiring, security and fire monitoring were related to Tyler’s use of the former Washington County Youth Development Center at 50 Old Hickory Ridge Road, in Arden, Chartiers Township. The county had to purchase some extra computers, Hatfield said, and install a new door to replace one that had corroded. Now that Tyler has vacated the premises, the building is to eventually become the new home of the Washington County Conservation District federal Department of Agriculture offices.

The Chapman Building at Jefferson Avenue and West Beau Street, the site of 10 weeks of property assessment appeals hearings, was furnished when the county rented it.

After the appeals board level, the next step is Washington County Court, where Administrator Patrick Grimm said 341 appeals had been filed as of Nov. 18. with more to come. One attorney alone is expected to generate 113 appeals on behalf of his clients.

Reflected in Washington County’s 2017 budget preparations is President Judge Katherine B. Emery’s administrative order appointing six masters in tax assessment appeals, all lawyers, who will be paid $500 per day including all work to prepare findings of fact and conclusions of law. In the 2017 Washington County budget, this is categorized as “other court-related expenses” and is expected to cost $200,000.

The Washington County reassessment grew out of a 2008 court case brought by the Washington and McGuffey school districts. The board of commissioners reluctantly agreed to begin a reassessment when they ran out of legal options in August 2013.

Property owners will be receiving their first Washington County and municipal tax bills issued under the reassessment in January. School districts, which operate under a fiscal calendar that begins July 1, will be the last taxing bodies to weigh in with new levies for 2017.