Schuylkill County officials have been in talks with a Harrisburg organization that sued the county to try to force a reassessment.

An announcement is expected from commissioners at their Wednesday public meeting.

The lawsuit was filed on July 30, 2018, on behalf of Robert Heim and Lisa Aviles by the nonprofit Community Justice Project.

First Assistant Solicitor Glenn Roth previously told the Times News that Heim has since died, and that Aviles no longer lives in the county.

The organization has since added Michelle Boylan, Michelle Damrose and John Damrose as plaintiffs.

In November 2020, the county hired Joan R. Price of Eastburn and Gray, P.C., Doylestown, to evaluate the county’s tax assessment procedures and processes and relevant matters.

As of Thursday, the lawsuit, which contends the property tax burden is unfairly determined, was still before county Judge James P. Goodman.

No one at the organization this week answered phone calls or emails seeking more information.

Community Justice has filed multiple such suits in the state, including Lackawanna and Allegheny counties.

Schuylkill County properties were last reassessed in 1996.

Chief Assessor Kent Hatter would not speak to the negotiations, but said the suit was filed to equalize unfair property tax burdens.

“It’s about fairness,” Hatter said. “It’s about uniformity across the board and consistency is the goal.”

The last reassessment was 26 years ago - back when JonBenét Ramsey’s death was in the headlines and Tom Brady was a freshman at the University of Michigan, Hatter said.

“Our county is changing,” he said. “Just drive around and look at all the huge warehouses and other changes. Values and neighborhoods and all kinds of things have changed since 1996. “The further you get away from 1996, the more the assessed values get skewed,” he said.

Schuylkill County has 94,600 properties, he said. That includes about 60,000-some residential units.

Subdivisions and additions mean the number of parcels is constantly in flux.

Hatter said the fair market value as of Nov. 3, 2021, is $5,314,209,100.

Fair market value is what a property sells for on the open market.

Assessed value is the taxable value of a property, currently 50 percent of the fair market value.

The total assessed value as of Nov. 3, 2021 is $2,657,104,550.

This year, the county anticipates $40,283,278 in property tax revenues. That’s 61.1 percent of its total $65,450,758 revenue.