County Seeks Municipality's Help in Assessments

In a Morning Call article (Monday, October 9, 2006) Paul Mushick reports (read the full article here) that the Northampton County Tax Assessment Office is seeking help from municipalities following an audit that indicated:

Some local governments are not providing information to the county about properties that may need to be assessed, according to a recent audit by the county controller's office.

''Municipalities that don't send in building permits are depriving themselves, the county and school districts of additional tax revenue,'' lead auditor Paul Albert wrote.

Included in the article was a comment indicating that Nazareth Borough was one of eight that did not supply any building permits to the county in 2005, thereby potentially losing tax revenue that could have been collected:

According to the recent audit, eight boroughs did not send building permits to the county in 2005: Chapman, East Bangor, Freemansburg, Glendon, Nazareth, Portland, Roseto and Stockertown.

The article also notes that the County would like to receive occupancy permits as this indicates when a property is completed. Some confusion seems to exist between the County and the municipalities in terms of what is needed and the best means to submit these materials so a meeting is being held by the county for municipalities to improve this understanding.