Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato this afternoon said he will not do a property reassessment even if he loses the assessment case, which comes up for oral arguments in the state Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Mr. Onorato implemented a base-year property assessment plan in 2005, which was thrown out last year by Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr., after he declared the state law that allows base-year systems unconstitutional.

Under a base-year system, the adjust all property assessments to their value in a selected year -- in this case 2002 -- including new construction. Mr. Onorato decided to switch to a base-year system in 2005 after he was unhappy with a reassessment of all property would have raised the average value of homes by about 19 percent

"We think [Judge Wettick] is wrong," Mr. Onorato said, adding that he would "go to Harrisburg and ask them for a new law on base-year plans" if the Supreme Court upholds Judge Wettick's decision.

The court, which holds sessions in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh every year, will meet in a courtroom on the eighth floor of the City-County Building next week.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.