Blair County residents receiving real estate tax bills
HOLLIDAYSBURG — Blair County and municipal real estate tax bills being mailed today reflect the use of newly certified property values from the county’s reassessment project.
While some of those values remain subject to appeal, the bills should collectively mirror the predictions provided in December, Evaluator Services & Technology Vice President Tim Barr said Tuesday.
Based on those predictions, 36 percent of property tax bills should be higher, 31 percent should be lower and 33 percent should be about the same.
“It shouldn’t have changed much since December,” Barr said.
But property owners should be aware that the bill in the mail reflects only county and municipal taxes.
School tax bills based on newly certified property values won’t be mailed until July 1 for the 2017-18 school year.
Barr also advised that a listing of the county and municipal tax rates for 2017 are now posted on www.blairco.org.
All levies were checked, he said, to make sure that they didn’t exceed the maximum 10 percent increase allowed in a reassessment year.
To date, Blair County has spent about $4 million on reassessment, based on amounts reflected in an accounting of 2014 bond issue proceeds.
The bulk of that reassessment spending, at $3.33 million, was paid to EST, the Greensburg-based company that managed the reassessment project.
In addition, the county has paid $654,756 for reassessment-related expenses that include rental of the Blair County Convention Center for informal and formal appeals, rental of office space on Allegheny Street for reassessment staff work, legal work, appraisals and postage.
The latest bill for reassessment was paid in January, when the bond fund provided $228,000 to reimburse the county’s general fund for reassessment-related work handled by county personnel, county Finance Director Robert Kuntz said Tuesday.
While the bond fund cannot be used to cover payroll, the county’s costs for having personnel handle specific reassessment-related tasks can be covered by the bond fund, County Administrator Helen Schmitt said.
Of the $10.39 million in the 2014 bond fund, Kuntz’s accounting indicates that $8.9 million has been spent as of Jan. 31, leaving a remainder of about $1.4 million.
Besides reassessment, the bond fund has also been used to make exterior waterproofing repairs to the courthouse at $2.1 million; to renovate, pave and light the 911 Center and its parking lot at $923,645; to repair the county’s parking garage at $697,579; to install canopies over courthouse entrance/exits at $425,587 and for additional purchases.
The bond issue also set aside $240,000 to purchase a building for Magisterial District Judge Craig Ormsby.
But commissioners are working on plans that will move Ormsby’s office to the Altoona-Blair County Airport, under a lease arrangement being set up with the airport authority.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.
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