The first piece of legislation in 2026 taken up by Allegheny County Council’s Committee on Assessment Practices is not to reassess the 2012 base year values and keep them updated. Instead, it is to enact a property tax relief program for longtime owner-occupants, which proponents state they want to have in place before a reassessment occurs.
At the committee’s Feb. 3 meeting, members all seemed to agree that a reassessment is a “when,” not an “if,” question even if the “when” is still undetermined. So, too, is the mechanism (state legislation or court ruling) that will get the process started.
The committee passed an ordinance to provide “Tax Exemptions for Longtime Owner-Occupants of Residential Properties” (LOOP). Previous Institute research (here, here and here) discussed the constitutional language and statutory history of LOOP.
To summarize, the proposed ordinance would permit a longtime owner-occupant (minimum of 10 years in a principal residence or five years if government or nonprofit housing assistance was granted) in Allegheny County to apply for the benefit if their household income in less than or equal to 125 percent of Area Median Income, taxes are current, or in a payment plan, and the tax liability has grown as a result of a reassessment and adjustment of millage afterward by at least 35 percent.
The arbitrary nature of 125 percent of Area Median Income was discussed. The ordinance notes “assessed value changes not attributable to the alterations to the assessed property itself”. That seems to indicate a longtime owner-occupant could not put an addition on the residence, see the value go up greater than 35 percent and qualify.
A lot of time was spent on the provision that, much like Philadelphia’s LOOP, a qualified owner-occupant could not take the homestead exemption and the LOOP.  Allegheny County’s homestead exemption is $18,000 and reduces the county tax bill by $115. If LOOP presented deeper savings, it is hard to see why a taxpayer would not utilize it. The ordinance envisions LOOP as a 10-year exemption with automatic annual increases in tax liability to bring the “capped” taxes to a “current” level.
What LOOP entails for the county’s bottom line is unknown. The 2026 budget shows the homestead exemption costs $31.1 million. A LOOP might pull some of the people who are taking the homestead exemption now. There will be forms, regulations and oversight of a LOOP program. Given that, along with difficulties taxpayers have trying to comprehend their tax bill after a reassessment, why not just increase the homestead exemption? This happened when the 2012 base year values went into effect and the exemption increased by $3,000.Â
It is recommended once again that Allegheny County officials, without waiting for state legislation or a verdict in a lawsuit, move toward enacting a regular reassessment schedule.
