A co-sponsorship memorandum presented by an Allegheny County state senator would mandate a “uniform five-year cycle” for Pennsylvania’s counties to conduct property reassessments. This would end the practice of permitting counties to use an indefinite base year, which was established in 1982. The memorandum noted that the State Tax Equalization Board would be given “enforcement power.”
The Allegheny Institute has long advocated for regular reassessments as a way of keeping property values uniform; reducing appeal activity; preventing sticker shock when values are updated; avoiding court-ordered reassessments and moving Pennsylvania away from its outlier status with other states on the issue.
Allegheny County currently has a 2012 base year, is being sued by Pittsburgh Public Schools to conduct a reassessment and has seen its common level ratio used in appeals fall due to another lawsuit and the span of years since reassessing. The most recent data on taxable value shows that it has decreased 1.4 percent from the January 2024 certified value of $85.4 billion. The county enacted and is considering a number of proposals related to assessments and appeals in 2024.
Eleven other counties are either reassessing or have indicated they will be carrying out a reassessment in the next few years.
Will 2025 bring hope for this proposal? Or will it suffer the same fate of previous efforts to enact a statewide reassessment cycle? Time will tell, and the Allegheny Institute will be monitoring this legislation’s developments.
