As we have written plenty of times before, officials will always come up with reasons not to conduct a property reassessment.  Pennsylvania puts county government in charge of property assessment, but the state does not mandate a cycle for when revaluations have to be done, so the state has counties like Westmoreland where properties have not been reassessed since 1972.  Unless there is a lawsuit over values by taxpayers or other taxing bodies then it is up to county government to move forward.

Though a member of the board of commissioners cited Allegheny County, there have been other counties in the western half of the state that have undertaken assessments in recent years, including two counties with older base years than 1972.  Citing a county where there was vehement opposition to reassessing and a court case that went all the way to the Supreme Court seven years ago, while important, is not the only example that can be brought up.  Even with Pennsylvania’s non-existent cycle, plenty of counties have reassessed since Westmoreland and Allegheny.

While the County may not want to do a reassessment, it certainly has taken steps to prepare for one in the event that a lawsuit orders them to do so (the article notes “…commissioners have laid the groundwork for a reassessment by updating computer records and having aerial photographs taken of all county properties”).  But it seems clear they will be reactive when the time actually comes.