HARRISBURG -- A Democratic legislator from northeast Pennsylvania may be riding to the rescue of Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.

Rep. John Yudichak of Luzerne County said that this week he'll introduce a two-part bill on the politically touchy subject of residential and commercial property reassessments.

One part would tell the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee, a General Assembly study panel, to gather information about Maryland and other states that have a statewide property assessment office, rather than the Pennsylvania system of having each county do its own reassessment -- or let years go by between reassessments.

The bill, which would need House and Senate approval, also would put a moratorium on court-ordered reassessments, such as Allegheny County is under due to a recent decision of the state Supreme Court, which found the county's base year assessment system unconstitutional. Mr. Onorato is resisting a move for a new assessment of properties.

Mr. Yudichak said his home county of Luzerne is also facing a reassessment controversy, as is Allegheny County and, potentially, many of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania. He said that Luzerne has just spent $9 million to complete its first property reassessment in 40 years but some people don't like it.

With such a long lag time in revaluing properties, many have increased in value, and a group of property owners is going to court to try to block the reassessment because they fear higher taxes, he said.

He wants to see if it makes sense for state government to take over the reassessment job from the counties, to save them the high costs of reassessments and to have the job done more often than it's being done in many counties.

The study, which would take six months to a year to complete, would also determine how much it would cost the state to create a new reassessment office.

"We want to look at states that do it on a statewide basis," Mr. Yudichak said today. "We are trying to achieve fairness with property valuation. Higher taxes aren't the goal. I am trying for fairness."

Douglas Hill, director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said he had been to Maryland recently to examine its system and it's worthwhile for the state to look at it also.

Maryland reassesses one-third of its properties each year, meaning it takes three years to complete a full reassessment, Mr. Yudichak said. There is also a system for allowing property owners, if their taxes go up, to pay the higher amounts in installments.

The House's Local Government Committee today also had a discussion of the Allegheny County court case and what steps the Legislature might take, without reaching any conclusions.

"Reassessment is certainly a volatile issue," said Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Northhampton, committee chairman.

Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled that Allegheny County's base year assessment system is unconstitutional because it doesn't set a time for reviewing assessments, which allows them be higher or lower than they should be if market conditions change. Many counties around the state have a similar system, but they haven't been challenged in court.