Blog

Independent Evaluation of Indiana County’s Reval Should Not Surprise

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

The literature on property tax systems in the United States sheds virtually no light on the reasons for such a neglectful property tax system as Pennsylvania’s.3 Significantly, Pennsylvania has no agency that oversees local assessors, as is common elsewhere, and the Tax Equalization Division (TED) (formerly the State Tax Equalization Board or STEB) publishes little information on the state of affairs in each county. Pennsylvania’s predetermined ratios (PDRs) are meaningless in a valuation context, and its common level ratios (CLRs) are so statistically flawed that they provide an unreliable picture of overall level of assessment in each county”.

The above comes from an independent evaluation of the reassessment contract between Indiana County and a third party mass appraisal company.  The news media coverage of the contract and the accuracy of the reassessment “...was made in compliance with legal requirements and the results of the reassessment generally pass assessing industry standards”.

This was the first reassessment conducted in Indiana County since 1968–the report points out that “In only Delaware, New York, and Pennsylvania is such a long interval between reassessments as Indiana County has experienced conceivable. Most states mandate reassessments annually or on a fixed cycle of no more than six years. In addition to the property tax inequities that accompany infrequent reassessments, assessment districts find it difficult to maintain mass appraisal skills and resources, including appropriately organized collections of essential data.”  The lack of a regular cycle of reassessing in PA is something we pointed out in our 2007 report and many times since then.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Allegheny Institute
Allegheny Institute

The Allegheny Institute is a non-profit research and education organization. Our mission is to defend the interests of taxpayers, citizens and businesses against an increasingly burdensome and intrusive government.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Weekly insights on the markets and financial planning.

Recent Posts