The complaints levied by Allegheny County officials that they have been "singled out" by the state’s courts in having to conduct a reassessment have been long and loud, but the County has company from its neighbor to the south, Washington County. It just received word that the Commonwealth Court tossed its appeal of a Common Pleas decision that it had to reassess. The Governor vetoed a bill in 2011 that would have permitted a moratorium on the Washington County reassessment.

So where does the issue go from here? Obviously there could be a Supreme Court appeal or another motion to the Commonwealth Court, but based on the Allegheny County decision if the issue at hand is the underassessment of commercial properties due to a base year that has become "stale", then it is quite simple to predict what is going to happen. The Supreme Court held that it could take a long time for inequities to arise in some counties; Washington County might be there.

A January article quoted one of the County Commissioners who referred to "the mess in Allegheny County" as reason to hold off. Sounds a lot like the desire of Allegheny County officials to have "predictability and stability", twin goals that the courts did not agree with.