Allegheny Institute Blog

Just when you have become resigned to your assessed value, a Court of Common Pleas decision has thrown out the Allegheny County base year assessment plan. We noted many times that this base year plan was not really a carefully thought out one, rather, it was a last resort aimed at doing everything possible to avoid letting the 2006 assessment go forward. As such, the County and the Appeals Board never really understood how they were going to assess homes that were, for example, built after the 2002 base year and not on the tax rolls. Taxpayers were even more confused.

If the ruling stands—it will be appealed, no doubt—it will challenge the very existence of the assessment system statewide, where many counties have not reassessed for decades. Much of the opinion outlines the statutes of other states; it is clear that the Judge is letting it be known that the state legislature may have to take some type of action to get assessments uniform.

Absent statewide change, the opinion directs Allegheny County to get a computer generated reassessment ready for 2009, which, incidentally, would have been the first year of annual assessments if the 2006 valuations had not been thrown out.

Knowing that there is once again a window of opportunity, first to get assessments as correct as humanly possible and second to get a handle on the services the County provides in relation to its border county neighbors and how much it costs to provide those services, it is incumbent on officials to get it done right this time. Knowing that tax increases occur even in places where there is a base year assessment in place provides little comfort to taxpayers. As previous rulings have noted, there is no use waiting for the perfect reassessment and the County’s chief assessment officer at the time noted that the 2006 assessments were “uniform and accurate”.