Lehighton Area School District’s board of directors put a post-sale property spot assessment policy on the back burner Monday night while it focuses on getting other Carbon County districts to join its push for a countywide reassessment.

The policy, which called for properties in the district to be reassessed after they are sold, was to be up for a second reading and approval in two weeks.

“I’m not a big fan of spot assessments,” Board President Joy Beers said. “They are a band aid for a bigger issue, which is making sure property taxes are distributed fairly between those people with higher value properties and those with lower value properties. Because a countywide reassessment hasn’t happened in over 20 years, that isn’t happening here and a tax burden may be falling on people in a more impoverished situation.”

The last countywide reassessment, which was court ordered, was completed in 2000 and cost just over $2 million. Before that, it had been 31 years in between reassessments.

Schuylkill County is current going through a reassessment at a cost of $6.6 million.

Monroe County’s reassessment cost $6.4 million in 2016.

Though the district will be reaching out to others to join it in approaching the county, some Lehighton directors aren’t sure there will be an appetite from commissioners to move forward with a reassessment.

“I think we do need to find out what other communities think, but it’s an election year for the commissioners and I would think they will look the other way on this,” director Jeremy Glaush said.

Beers said the district would likely come out revenue neutral when it comes to property taxes after a countywide reassessment.

“If there is a reassessment and our total property value doubles, we would need to half our millage,” Beers said. “According to what our solicitor is telling us, often times what you’ll see is a third of the properties go down in value, a third stay roughly the same and a third increase value.”

Should a countywide reassessment take place, Beers said, she’d have more of an appetite for a district property tax increase in the future.

“We didn’t raise taxes in the last two years because we are very concerned about people in the community who are struggling and the elderly living on social security,” Beers said. “We have been advised to raise taxes by our administration. I think we would be more comfortable raising taxes if we felt they were calibrated to the actual value of properties.”

Lehighton’s board was mixed Monday on the prospect of spot assessing properties after sale in its own district. While director Kerry Sittler said she was against that practice, board member Nathan Foeller dubbed it “better than nothing” if a county reassessment can’t be achieved.

“Spot assessments are clearly a second choice, but I don’t think we should pull this policy off the table because I think the prospect of a countywide reassessment is low,” Foeller said.

Initially against spot assessments, director Barbara Bowes said her tune has changed after seeing multiple businesses appeal their assessment values and have them successfully lowered.

“We saw it with Walmart, the Times News building and the Hampton Inn,” Bowes said. “They all reduced their tax burden pretty significantly. We can’t afford to lose that revenue because then we have to raise taxes on people who can’t afford to pay. I’m sorry, if you pay $800,000 for a house that is assessed at $70,000, you can afford the extra taxes.”

Local Realtors have strongly opposed any attempts at spot assessments. Other districts including Panther Valley, Tamaqua and Jim Thorpe have already used the practice. Cass Chies of Diamond 1st Real Estate in Palmerton said homes could become blackballed after agents disclose to buyers that spot assessments are taking place.

“There was a listing on Laurel Drive in Summit Hill that sat on the market for three years,” Chies said. “The taxes were $6,500 but some calculations were that after the sale and a reassessment that they would jump to $12,000. No tax should have the power to leave someone homeless or take the dream of home ownership away.”

Instead, Chies said, districts should be pushing legislators to pass property tax elimination bills, many of which have been kicked around Harrisburg for several years.

Glaush, however, put the odds of property tax elimination around equal to a countywide reassessment.

“The politicians laugh at us as they keep dangling that carrot out and people keep voting for them hoping it will get passed,” Glaush said of property tax elimination. “It couldn’t get passed when there was a full Republican Senate and House and governor. We have to look at other avenues we can go down.”