What Will Come of Assessment Meeting?

On Thursday the County and Common Pleas Court Judge Wettick are to meet to discuss the progress toward the 2012 reassessment. As we pointed out in a recent Brief, things were on track based on the statements of County officials all the way back to December of 2009 when the reassessment timeline was established. The Manager, Solicitor, and acting head of the Assessment Department indicated as much. Now the timeline indicates that values might not be ready until next spring.

The County was long holding out hope that the state would pass a moratorium on court-ordered reassessments. The Legislature did at the end of June, but the legislative process reduced it down to apply only to Washington County. The Governor vetoed the bill, and as of this writing there is not going to be an override of the veto. That takes away some of belief by County officials that they are being singled out by the specter of property assessments. It gets the focus back on the matter at hand in Allegheny County.

So what happens Thursday? Perhaps the Judge will recall his opinion from May of 2005 (on the County’s cap system plan) when he wrote "it is the responsibility of the County to promptly make available to the office of Property Assessments and the Chief Assessment Officer whatever resources are needed to improve the process".