Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio News Director. Published June 27, 2023 3:55 P.M.

(Beaver County, PA) Attorney John Salopek of the Beaver County Bar Association joined Mike Romigh Tuesday morning during “Live Mic” to discuss appealing your assessment. The new numbers and millage will go into effect January 1st, 2024 and school millage on July 1st, 2024.

Salopek says the notices that Tyler Technologies sent in the spring were looking for large mistakes. He says we are now in the true appeal period, with the notices that went out Friday, June the 23rd. A 40 day time period where a property owner can file an appeal to the Beaver County Board of Assessment Appeals and Revisions is now in effect.

Attorney Salopek notes that the assessors didn’t enter the properties, and assumes they input property descriptions to an algorithm and the algorithm creates the values. He is sure much of the process is computer generated.

He says real estate values have gone up since the last assessment in the 80s. The 80s assessment was 50% of market value, and this assessment is set at 100% of market value.

The county has indicated the old millage was 26 mills, and is now reduced to 3.66 mills. The county has the calculations for taxes listed on their website.

Salopek adds that school districts cannot raise their tax revenue based on the new assessment. They are not allowed to take advantage of the assessment for their own gain.

“Everybody needs to be realistic and credible when they go to their hearings.”

The assessment office will schedule appeals for those who file their request for one. They are expecting 12-15,000 appeals out of the 90,000 assessments.