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Washington County Assessment Notices Soon to be in the Mail

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For the first time in thirty years, the County immediately south of Allegheny County will update assessed values for property tax purposes for the County, its municipalities, and school districts.

A news article this morning states that assessment notices should be going out in the mail to taxpayers. At this point, at least from the statements made by Washington County officials at an informational meeting in Peters Township covered in the article are pointing out the right things: an increase in the assessed value does not necessarily mean an increase in taxes.  Hopefully data on what millage rates should be based on state law (Act 93 of 2010 applies to Washington County and its municipalities based on its class, Act 1 of 2006 has language on school districts everywhere) will be published on the notice, but it is fair to expect there will be a significant number of appeals from property owners not satisfied with their value.  That process should happen this year so that tax bills on the updated values go out for 2017.

The County’s most recent data on property values shows that there is $1.8 billion in total assessed value, with $1.6 billion of this being taxable (88%).  Based on the ratio currently in Washington County of taxable and exempt value, there is $7.59 in taxable value for every $1 in exempt.  Based on what we published in a recent Brief on Allegheny County’s certified values for 2016, the taxable to exempt ratio in Washington right now is two times greater than that of Allegheny County ($3.32/$1).  It will be interesting to see how Washington’s ratio changes, if at all, after the reassessment (a few years before the 2013 reassessment, taxable value as a percentage to total in Allegheny County was in the 78-79% range, now it has settled to 77% in the last two certified years).

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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.

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