Lehigh County Commissioner Antonio Pineda, one of the co-sponsors of the Bill 2022-49, Establishment of Fees for Real Property Tax Assessment Appeals by the Office of Assessment and Board of Assessment Appeals, explained to his fellow commissioners, during the Jan. 25 meeting, 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 “regarding no-shows to assessment appeals, or people that file their appeals that aren’t very serious in nature, not really a true appeal but just attempting it,” Reeves’ data shows there are “60-75% no shows a year, 40-50% aren’t serious applications and on average, the cost of administrating the process of these appeals is $200 to $350 per appeal.”

Pineda went on to explain Reeves’ data shows “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.”

He believes this bill will help prevent waste of taxpayer resources, 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.

“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 because those are the ones that we find the majority of the no-shows before they file, multiple reassessments for clients and then never show up to actually defend those,” according to Reeves.

Commissioner Ron Beitler did not fully agree with his colleagues, explaining he was “sympathetic to the points brought up by the sponsors and also appreciative of their work to massage this a little bit to make it more palpable. I would be totally supportive of a rate protocol that would charge for folks of no-show.”

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

2023 Allocation Plan for the Opioid Settlement

Commissioner Bob Elbich, sponsor of the 2023 allocation plan for the Opioid Settlement Steering Committee, explained there have been changes in data he recently received which could affect the 18-year initiative which is fixed. The changes being brought forth by the bill are procedural in nature, “not content, validity or significance,” Elbich explained.

Lehigh County Commissioners Chairman Geoff Brace said he is “very supportive of building and providing MAT (Medication-Assisted Treatment) services in the county facilities ... truly a lifesaving conversation.

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