Pennsylvania is now into its third century of complaints about property assessments.

It was 1981 when, under Gov. Richard Thornburgh, the Pennsylvania Tax Commission made a series of recommendations to improve the equity and efficiency of the tax system across the commonwealth.

Regarding assessments, the report said, "The poor quality of property assessment in Pennsylvania is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it has been noted by virtually every other tax commission which has looked at the subject matter in both this century and the 19th century."

The commission called the reforms "realistic."

But the reform of the assessments system has never been realized.

Back in 1981, as now, many counties across Pennsylvania worked off a base year for determining the taxable values for properties, leaving many assessments far off the mark. On Wednesday, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. ruled that the base-year system of assessing property is unconstitutional. He determined that ignoring changes in the real estate market while keeping assessments pegged to one year's values creates an unfair tax burden for some property owners while improperly easing property taxes for others, which violates the state's uniformity clause.

If the decision is upheld, it will throw out the assessment systems statewide since every other county in the state operates off a base year for assessments.

The system the commission recommended in 1981 involved individual counties hiring assessors who would have to be certified; a reassessment was triggered when assessments were determined to have fallen more than 20 percent away from fair market value.

Instead, in 1982 the legislature passed a law that codified using the base-year system, the same law that Judge Wettick said violated the constitutional uniformity clause.

Thomas Connolly, chairman of the Pennsylvania State Tax Equalization Board, doesn't see much political will to repair it now, either.

"If you're looking for a villain, it's the Legislature. They could solve this, but where's the hue and cry from taxpayers to get this done?" Mr. Connolly said.

Mr. Connolly said he believes the reason most people in the state are not complaining is that they are relatively happy with how the assessments stand.

He noted that county assessors don't usually receive notes from happy property owners.

"Anytime a county assessor sees anyone in their office, the person is yelling and screaming at them," he said.

It's not just taxpayers who don't want to change the system. Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato said he thinks Judge Wettick's ruling was wrong.

And so does state Rep. John Maher, R-Upper St. Clair. Speaking on KD/PG Sunday Edition, Mr. Maher said Judge Wettick went too far when he declared the system unconstitutional and imposed time lines for new property assessments.

"If he wants to do that, he ought to run for a policy-making job and not legislate from the bench," he said.