Earlier this year the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas dismissed a lawsuit brought by Pittsburgh Public Schools’ (PPS) seeking a property reassessment in Allegheny County. The court held that PPS lacked standing and failed to show how it was harmed by the county having a 2012 base year.
PPS appealed the decision to Commonwealth Court. The most recent action in the case was a brief filed by Allegheny County in which the county argues “it is apparent that [PPS] had pled only one harm; having to pay property tax refunds.” Refunds totaled $30.7 million in the years 2022 through 2025. Over those same years PPS collected $748.3 million in taxes and did not increase its property tax rate from 10.25 mills. The brief mentions total expenditures grew 26 percent in 2024 and another 5.4 percent in 2025. We have pointed out PPS’ far out-of-line per-pupil spending compared to other districts many times over the years.
The county argues since PPS has control over its ability to raise revenue to provide for the duties conferred upon it by the General Assembly, that it can appeal properties within its taxing jurisdiction and that PPS has no standing in the matter, the ruling by Common Pleas ought to be upheld.
The court continues deliberations, and, depending on how it rules, it is likely the case will go to the state Supreme Court. The county notes that PPS having to pay tax refunds would not substantially change as a result of a countywide reassessment:
There will always be some properties in Allegheny County that decrease in property value, and their owners will successfully challenge their current and past property assessments. There will always be [an appeals board] that will award reductions … There will always be a [State Tax Equalization Board] that sets a new [Common Level Ratio] for Allegheny County every year. There will always be fluctuations and uncertainty in the real estate market and changes in society … A Countywide property reassessment will not eliminate any of these realities.
That reality would change if Allegheny County committed to reassess under a regular schedule so that values don’t stay in place as long as they have. The common level ratio would not slip as significantly, appeals activity would be less and taxpayers would not deal with sticker shock and the fear over steep tax hikes from changes in values. Taxing bodies and taxpayers would not have to bring lawsuits in order to get counties to keep values updated.
The county argues that a reassessment “would be an onerous undertaking, spanning many years to complete, and will logically be a great expense to Allegheny County and its taxpayers, with ramifications far greater than the interest of one school district within Allegheny County.”
That’s true. But changing the standard operating procedures could change that as well. Taxpayers deserve to find out.
