HONESDALE, PA — The three-person Board of Commissioners responsible for the “orderly and efficient administration” of the Wayne County government is up for reelection every four years. 

The sitting board spans the gamut of experience this year. Long-time commissioner and chairman Brian Smith is seeking reelection once again; his career spans 17 years. Commissioner Jocelyn Cramer is running her first reelection campaign, following her historic win in 2019, when she became the county’s first female commissioner. Meanwhile, Commissioner James Shook—who was appointed just months ago following former commissioner Joe Adams’ election to the state legislature—is running his first race for election by the voting public.

In addition, Hawley Borough Councilor Michael Dougherty and former Department of Defense employee Jacob Hanna are both looking to grab a seat on the board.

Until polls close at the end of the day on Tuesday, May 16, Democratic and Republican constituents throughout the county will be casting votes for two candidates from their respective parties. As Cramer and Dougherty are the only two Democrats in the race, they will likely both proceed to the November election. Republican voters, on the other hand, will have to choose two candidates from Smith, Shook and Hanna.

The election comes at a transformative time for the county. A recent tax reassessment and the post-COVID-19 flight of urbanites into the area has brought property values and taxes to the forefront of many locals’ minds.

The commissioners had not reassessed the property values of home and business owners throughout the county since 2004. Given the changes since then, Smith and two former commissioners decided to reassess in 2018, because some residents were paying less in property taxes than they “should” have been, while others were paying more than their fair share.

A lengthy process, the reassessment finally wrapped up toward the end of 2022. About 58 percent of residents, the commissioners said, ended up paying roughly the same or lower property taxes; the remainder had to pay higher rates to account for their higher property values. Smith said he doesn’t hear many assessment-related complaints on the campaign trail.

“I have not been out campaigning and had people give me a hard time about that at all, actually, although I know that it is a concern,” Smith said. “We have had some phone calls here [from] people who still think that their assessed value is too high… we have told people all along that if you legitimately think that your new assessed value is too high, please come see us and we will take a look at it.”

The commissioners stand behind the reassessment, and maintain that it was all about equity—making sure people aren’t paying too much or too little. Per state law, reassessments are required to be “revenue neutral,” meaning the county can’t collect more in property taxes following the reassessment than it did the previous year. To account for the higher property values, the commissioners enacted a lower millage rate in their 2023 budget.

“This whole process started in 2018, and it just really came to [a] head in the last year because the whole process was being finalized and put into place,” Shook said. “I would say the storm has passed, and we wouldn’t even probably be having a whole lot of conversations about assessment if it wasn’t an election year.”

Hanna, however, critiques the reassessment as “questionable” and said that the commissioners should have either done it sooner, or waited longer to implement it.

“Why hasn’t this [reassessment] been done sooner?” Hanna said. “I understand that the cost of things goes up… [but] by waiting this long if property values have shifted drastically or not, it’s going to make that much more of a dent; it’s going to hurt people more.”

Hanna said he also supports the elimination of property taxes altogether, saying that the county will soon be “unlivable” if they get any higher.

Cramer said that throughout the entire process, the commissioners have made sure to remind folks that since the reassessment process began in 2018, it was in no way motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic or in the influx of new residents to the area.

“This started back in 2018, long before COVID, and the real estate market in our area saw that spike as a result of COVID… This was to balance something that was unfair,” Cramer said. “Anyone who had questions or concerns picked up the phone and called any one of us directly… so that we could walk them through the specifics, so we could answer their questions directly and personally.”

The commissioners said they still welcome calls regarding residents’ property values, and can be reached at 570/ 253-5970.

Click here for more from the Wayne County Commissioners.