Questions and concerns about the upcoming Monroe County property reassessment were addressed during a special presentation at the Eldred Township board of supervisors meeting on Wednesday.

Wes Graham, senior project supervisor with Tyler Technologies, which is conducting the reassessment project, distributed pamphlets with important dates and information about the endeavor.“We will be revaluing all of the property in the county, and there is a procedure that we do. It really explains it well in the brochure, what you need to know,” Graham said.Data collection for the reassessment will begin in November, with Tyler staff members visiting properties in the township and asking questions about the property.“You’ll have someone come and knock on your door, and they’ll ask questions such as ‘How many bathrooms do you have? How many bedrooms do you have? What year was the home built? What type of heat? Does it have a basement? Is the basement finished?’ ” Graham said.The pamphlet reads that “All Tyler staff will wear photo ID badges and vests identifying them as part of the project. You may also see photographers with cameras, as well as data collectors measuring structors.”Collectors do not have to enter households, and if the homeowner is not present at the time of the visit, a door hanger will be left with instructions on how to provide the necessary information.When that procedure is done, an analysis will be conducted on the information from the survey.A mailer will be sent to each property with the information obtained from the data collection, and any corrections to the information can be made and submitted at this time.Once the complete analysis is finished, Tyler will send a notice about the value of the property to each owner, starting in March 2018.“If you don’t agree with the value, then you can call and ask to have an informal review with our appraisal officers. You can come in, talk to our appraisal officers, and we’ll explain to you how we got the value on your property. You can tell us why it maybe is not the correct value.”The values will then be submitted to a chief assessor in July 2018. Changes will be reflected in the new values, which will be sent out after the assessor certifies them.Formal appeals can be made to the board of appeals in Monroe County if property owners still disagree with the values.In November 2018, the values will be certified, and any changes will go into effect for tax year 2019.Assessment values from 1989 were evaluated at 25 percent of the market value for the property. The current reassessment will, according to Graham, likely reflect 100 percent of the value.“If nothing changed, your assessment would go up four times,” Graham said.“Does that mean your taxes will go up four times? No, because by statute the commissioners, the districts, the municipalities, they have to lower their millages four times. Now, they can raise it back up 10 percent, but most don’t.”Of course, the burning question will always be, “How much are my taxes going to go up?”“No one will know what your taxes are going to be. We don’t deal with taxes, we’re just appraisers, we just appraise the property,” Graham said.Graham and Tyler Technologies will be coming back to Eldred Township, as well as other Monroe County townships, for regular and special meetings throughout the duration of the project.