SCRANTON -- A panel of judges has decided the reassessment question on the ballot in Lackawanna County will not count.
The judges voted 2 to 1 that the results of the referendum will be "null and void," meaning votes cast on the question will not be counted.
Attorneys for Lackawanna County were in court last week to defend the wording of a referendum question. It essentially asks the voters whether Lackawanna County should do a property tax reassessment, something that hasn't been done in almost 50 years.
This is the wording of the proposed ballot question.
"Shall the Lackawanna County commissioners incur debt not to exceed $13 million solely for the purpose of conducting a county-wide revision of assessment so that all real estate within the county will be assessed at a predetermined ratio of 100 percent of a new base year value?"
Two businessmen, Chuck Volpe and Keith Eckel, both from the Clarks Summit area, filed a court injunction saying the wording of the referendum question is too confusing and that most voters won't understand what they're voting for.
The county's attorneys say the wording is what real estate attorneys recommended.
The judges sided with the plaintiffs in the case who said the wording was "unintelligible."