Warren County’s property assessment is over 30 years old.

But county officials do not have sufficient hard data to know whether reassessment is needed.

That’s the purpose of a ratio study proposal that the Warren County Commissioners discussed during Monday’s work session.

Solicitor Nathaniel Schmidt said the county initially thought it that no proposals were received to complete the study but one was emailed into the county system and just had not made it to the right people by the deadline.

That proposal came from Alan Dornfest, who works for the Idaho State Tax Commission.

Dornfest confirmed that the county’s last reassessment was in 1989.

“Obviously that’s a very long period of time,” Dornfest. “(I) would be surprised if there hadn’t been pretty substantial changes since then.”

But the ratio study would confirm or disprove that suspicion.

Dornfest said that study is mathematical in nature and seeks to determine various rations — assessed value divided by sale price — for varying types of property. He would be looking for whether the ratios are both consistent and equitable

He explained that the equity element is horizontal — such as assessments in the same neighborhood or all residential or commercial properties — and vertical. “Are the $500,000 properties treated the same as the $100,000 properties? Irrespective of price, are they at that same percentage?”

He stressed that there are national and international standards that would guide the work, using anywhere from one to three years worth of property sale data.

Schmidt said that, under Pennsylvania law, “reassessments are required to be revenue neutral. What happens as a result of reassessment, taking into account the adjusted values… the millage drops.”

Dornfest said the study would help the county understand the equity issues and decide whether reassessment is necessary.

Kafferlin said the proposal would have a final presentation of the study by Memorial Day at a cost of less than $5,000.

“We hear people say that we definitely need, or don’t” a reassessment,” he added. “The fact is it’s on a sliding scale. We just don’t know how much we do or do not need (reassessment). I want to be able to speak intelligently about the need or lack of need.”

“(We) need to state the county is not going to get any additional revenue from a reassessment,” Commissioner Jeff Eggleston said. “It makes the system fairer for the people that pay taxes.”