Lehigh County Commissioner Antonio Pineda, one of the co-sponsors of Bill 2022-49, explained why he supports the initiative during the Jan. 25 board meeting.

Bill 2022-49 is titled Establishment of Fees for Real Property Tax Assessment Appeals by the Office of Assessment and Board of Assessment Appeals. Pineda said he supports this initiative “as a way to prevent wasting of taxpayer resources and county resources.”

Looking over data received from Lehigh County Fiscal Officer Tim Reeves, Pineda pointed out Reeves’ data shows there are 60-75% no-shows to assessment appeals and 40-50% that aren’t serious applications. He noted the cost of administrating the process of these appeals is $200 to $350 each.

“This is wasting taxpayer dollars, on top of the fact that it is wasting hours for employees of the county, as well as resources of the county,” Pineda said.

He believes this bill will help prevent waste of taxpayer resources by encouraging individuals to take the whole appeal process seriously.

Reeves supported Pineda’s argument about the waste attributed by individuals who are no-shows at their appeals. He noted adding a small fee will help whittle down the appeals to those taking the process more seriously.

“By adding a small fee, we take away that motive for people to use this as a way to charge clients a fee for really something that they never intended on doing,” Reeves said, adding this seems to be the majority of the no-shows they are seeing.

Commissioner Ron Beitler did not fully agree with his colleagues, explaining he was sympathetic to the issues mentioned by the sponsors. He was also appreciative of the work they’ve done to make it more palpable.

“I would be totally supportive of a rate protocol that would charge for folks of no-show,” Beitler said.

He was the only commissioner present to vote against the bill, which passed 6-1.

In other business, Commissioner Bob Elbich, sponsor of the 2023 allocation plan for the Opioid Settlement Steering Committee, explained there have been changes in data that could affect the fixed 18-year initiative.

The changes being brought forth by the bill are procedural in nature - “not content, validity or significance,” Elbich explained.

Lehigh County Commissioner Chairman Geoff Brace said he is “very supportive of building and providing MAT (medication-assisted treatment) services in the county facilities,” noting it is a lifesaving conversation.

“I think we need to get ourselves there quickly, but while we are setting budgets, we need to make sure that not only are the funds available, that we have all our ‘t’s crossed, our ‘i’s dotted so that we can move forward,” Brace added.

Brace explained the reallocation of funds would be targeted to help the Northern Lehigh Opioid Treatment Facility, expand coaching services for families affected by opioid-related issues, mobilize therapy services, support the toxicology work of the coroner’s office and conduct data collection to ensure the work of the county is making a difference.