Judge declines to scrap values

Ruling leaves county, municipalities free to move forward with 2017 tax bills

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- A Blair County judge has turned down the request for a preliminary injunction to halt the use of newly certified property values in preparation of 2017 real estate tax bills.

After reviewing positions offered on behalf of Blair County and a citizens group critical of the county's reassessment project, Judge Elizabeth Doyle has concluded that the citizens group failed to meet  the "high burden" for  securing an injunction.

"Even though it was somewhat disappointing, the ruling was sort of expected," Hollidaysburg attorney Robert Donaldson said Tuesday on behalf of the Blair County Citizens for Accurate Reassessment. "A preliminary injunction is a pretty harsh remedy … and to get it, you have to meet each and every one of six requirements."

The ruling leaves the county and its municipalities in a position to move forward with preparing 2017 real estate tax bills for mailing in late February. If the injunction had been issued, the county and its municipalities would likely have been forced to recalculate millage rates and property tax bills based on 1958 property values that were in use until this year.

And that would have been a problem because the county stopped maintaining the 1958 property assessments last June, when it started putting its effort into appeals, attorney Joan Righter Price said.

Price, who is representing the county and Evaluator Services & Technology, the company Blair County hired to handle reassessment, said she appreciated Doyle's ruling.

"It was a very well-reasoned decision and I think Judge Doyle put a lot of thought into it," she said.

Doyle, whose ruling was filed late Friday in the county prothonotary's office, said her decision is narrowly tailored to address the injunction request from the citizens group.

It's not a finding on the merits of the case nor the court's prediction of an outcome, the judge wrote.

To back up her ruling, Doyle said she examined arguments offered in court and in writing by Price and by Aaron Ritchey and Richard Latker, president and secretary of the citizens group.

Of six standards needed for the granting of a preliminary injunction, she said the citizens group met two and failed to meet four.  In reaching that conclusion, the judge found that the injunction request would restore the prior status and prevent use of the new property values.

The judge disagreed with the citizens group on four additional elements: that an injunction was necessary to prevent immediate and irreparable harm; that greater injury would result from not granting an injunction; that the group has a clear right to relief; and that the preliminary injunction will not adversely affect the public interest.

Price contested many of the claims by pointing to the ongoing appeals process as evidence of relief available to unhappy property owners who would be entitled to refunds of real estate tax payments if they prevail with their individual complaints.

But the lawsuit identified many problems within the appeals process based on experiences relayed by members of the citizens group.  In the lawsuit, the group accused the county and EST personnel of setting up an appeals process too difficult for some taxpayers, thereby violating their due process rights.

Price said Tuesday that she filed preliminary objections on Monday to the group's lawsuit and expects Doyle to take them under review.

Donaldson, hired last week by the citizens group, said he will study the injunction ruling and Doyle's reasoning because this case will be moving forward.

"The area I'm focused on is the due process rights," Donaldson said. "From that end, I think the group has a very strong case."

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.