Lawyers for Allegheny County are calling on Common Pleas Court to dismiss two lawsuits against Chief Executive Dan Onorato's plan to reuse this year's assessment values in 2006, arguing that the homeowners in each case haven't tried to file appeals.

"Plaintiffs have failed to exhaust their administrative remedy of appealing their 2006 assessment," says a county response to one lawsuit.

Two groups of homeowners are trying to force the chief executive to use the results of a new assessment completed for 2006, something Mr. Onorato has declined to do.

Their lawyers say the appeals process is insufficient for dealing with their main concern -- that many homeowners will pay an unfair share of county, school, and municipal property taxes if county officials don't make assessment adjustments that reflect the broad changes in the real estate market since the last reassessment, in 2002.

In a brief filed Thursday, lawyers with the Community Justice Project, representing Kenneth Pierce of Braddock and Stephanie Beechaum of the Hill District, describe the county appeals board as "simply ill-suited" to deal with the legal and constitutional issues involved with the case.

"Like many other lower income homeowners, [Mr. Pierce and Ms. Beechaum] have continued to pay the disproportionate burden of taxation," the response says. "This will continue to occur and become worse."

Ira Weiss, an attorney representing homeowners from Franklin Park, Squirrel Hill, and Mt. Lebanon, agreed.

"An appeal is not an adequate remedy," he said.

Last month, County Council approved Mr. Onorato's plan, making 2002 the county's base year. Council is considering a bill that would call on the appeals board to follow that system.

Both lawsuits also call on the court to stop the county from mailing out 2006 property assessment notices. But county officials have already started a mass mailing for all 550,000 properties.

No hearing date has been set for either lawsuit.

Mr. Onorato has argued that the new values the county developed and refused to use would have increased property values across the county an average of 19 percent. Mr. Onorato said residents would have seen "massive" tax increases if those numbers had been used because many local municipalities and school districts would have accepted the additional revenue and not reduced tax millage.