Mar 5, 2017 2 min read

I found myself involved in informal hearings on the reassessment of five separate tax parcels in Washington County.

Two of these parcels were included under the Clean & Green program that most farmers in Washington County have their acreage assessed under. Those two Clean & Green parcels could not be discussed at the informal hearings, because Tyler Technologies legally could not reassess Clean & Green acres in Washington County, nor any county in Pennsylvania.

All counties in Pennsylvania have the same rates for Clean & Green acreage handed down to them by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. Every county must use the rates that apply to Clean & Green. All county commissioners can at any time vote to lower the rates handed to them from the agriculture department on the assessed values of Clean & Green, but they legally can never raise the rates.

It is my understanding that Washington County’s commissioners through the assessors office is signing off on the highest rate allowed by state law when billing for taxes on the county’s Clean & Green parcels.

My question to our commissioners, who claim to have voted against signing onto this reassessment despite court documents that prove otherwise, is why they didn’t vote to lower the rates on taxing the Clean & Green properties for our farmers and others who own Clean & Green parcels?

Rebecca L. Simpson

Washington