Inaccurate property assessments—causes, impacts and corrective actions
Problems in assessing property values First of all, it is important to examine the factors that can affect property market values and the accurate determination
Problems in assessing property values First of all, it is important to examine the factors that can affect property market values and the accurate determination
Pension problems facing school districts have come home to roost. As we wrote in a recent blog: “Unless there is agreement on pension reform legislation…most school districts in Pennsylvania face ruinous increases in pension funding.” To handle this increase, districts will have to raise taxes, lay off personnel, or both. And while the Commonwealth, through Act 1 of 2006, restricts a district’s ability to raise property tax rates, in Allegheny County eleven school districts, 25 percent of the total, have petitioned for an exception to this law meaning they now have permission to increase property tax rates above the Department of Education’s prescribed limit.
Two big developments regarding property reassessments have occurred in the last three weeks that will have a tremendous impact on Washington County. As we noted in our inaugural Brief of this year, the County has been in a court battle with two of its school districts since 2008 over conducting a revaluation of property, a task not carried out since 1981.
“It is important to understand that a taxpayer’s tax liability will not necessarily increase when the assessed value of their property increases…One of the common
Stop the reassessment in Allegheny County, no matter what it takes. That has been the consistent mantra from the County Executive (before and after his
In a long running drama remarkably similar to the case in Allegheny County, a Commonwealth Court judge denied Washington County’s appeal of a November 2011
“Out with the new, in with the old” seems an apt description of what transpired last week. In the latest twist in the never ending
Setting aside all the madness surrounding the reassessment process that began with the mailing of new values to property owners in Pittsburgh and Mt. Oliver,
Every so often the idea comes up-shifting the school tax burden from property to something else such as the sales tax or the personal or
Although Allegheny County’s base year plan has not completely given up the ghost, the epitaph for the plan is beginning to be written.