Allegheny County may file a federal lawsuit that would seek to force a change in state law concerning property assessments if a statewide legislative remedy can't be found, according to a spokesman for Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato.

Mr. Onorato met in Harrisburg last night with state lawmakers from Allegheny County to make his case for a legislative fix to the county's reassessment problems.

If legislators are unwilling to create a uniform assessment system and the county decides to file a federal lawsuit, it probably would base its case on the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees equal protection for all citizens, including in matters of taxation, said spokesman Kevin Evanto.

"Because Allegheny County residents are being treated differently than residents in the other 66 counties, we're tackling the problem on the local, state and potentially on the federal level," Mr. Evanto said.

The case, if any, would be filed in U.S. District Court and would be independent of any appeals of last week's ruling by the state Supreme Court that Allegheny County must reassess its properties, he said.

In that ruling, the court found that the Allegheny County's base year system is illegal; the system, which uses 2002 as a base year, doesn't set a time frame for reviewing assessments and adjusting for changes in property values at regular intervals.

As a result, the court ruled, homeowners whose homes have declined in value pay too much while homeowners whose values have risen pay too little.

Almost all counties in Pennsylvania choose a base year for property assessments and compute the value of all property from the value it would have had in that year. That value is used to determine how much property tax homeowners must pay.

Some counties haven't reassessed in decades, helping keep their taxes low. Unlike in Allegheny County, the legality of those base years hasn't been challenged.

The state Supreme Court remanded its decision to Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. to set a time frame for a countywide reassessment to be completed. Mr. Onorato and Judge Wettick will meet tomorrow to discuss that timetable.

Mr. Onorato, however, still would want legislators to create a uniform statewide system. Last night, Mr. Onorato made his pitch to a mostly receptive group of Allegheny County lawmakers.

"All the members shared his concern for the impact on Allegheny County in particular," said Sen. Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills.

Mr. Onorato would like the state to impose a moratorium on reassessments until a legislative solution can be reached. But that too is meeting resistance.

"The state creating a moratorium would still create an egregious system of inequity across the many counties of the commonwealth," said Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, who supports the idea of a uniform statewide assessment system.

Gov. Ed Rendell said he sympathizes with Mr. Onorato.

"I agree with Dan -- it is a statewide issue,'' Mr Rendell said, speaking in Pittsburgh. "[But] I don't think there is a willingness to get it done in the Legislature."