by peter e. bortner
A Schuylkill County judge has declined to lower the fair market and assessed values of a Branch Township property.
In a five-page opinion and order filed Tuesday, Judge John E. Domalakes ruled that the owners of 530 Spruce St. did not present sufficient evidence to justify changing its values.
"Their evidence confirmed the county's fair market value of the real estate," Domalakes wrote in rejecting the Oct. 11 appeal of the decision of the county Board of Assessment Appeals.
By so ruling, Domalakes upheld the board's decision that the property's fair market value is $156,740, including $117,150 for the building and $39,590 for the land, and its assessed value is $78,370.
As a result, property owners Gerald J. Labooty and Mark Rosenberger will continue to pay their current amounts of taxes to the county, township and Minersville Area School District.
Domalakes wrote that under state law, the county's assessment records are presumptively correct and a property owner must prove that the values are different.
The property owners, however, presented no evidence that could lead to a different result, according to Domalakes.
"The court was presented with no alternative fair market value other than the one utilized by the county," the judge wrote. "As such, the property owners failed to carry their burden of proof, and the presumption of the validity of the county's tax determination cannot be changed."
Domalakes also wrote that the owners cannot argue that their property's assessment lacks uniformity, meaning it is a higher percentage of its fair market value than comparable properties, because they did not present evidence of those properties' values.