Lawyer: Property in lower-income areas may still be overvalued
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Many Allegheny County property owners in lower-income places like Braddock and Duquesne are finding their new assessments have increased more than those in more affluent communities like Plum and Monroeville, a lawyer involved in the case said today.
Don Driscoll told the judge overseeing the county's court-ordered reassessment that evidence was mounting that real estate in poorer communities could continue to be overvalued when the new numbers go into effect in 2013.
He said he drew that conclusion after reviewing new values released last week for the county's eastern suburbs.
He has asked county officials for ratio studies and other information used to determine new property values. Having that data would allow for an outside, independent review of the $11 million project, he said.
County solicitor Michael Wojcik said the ratio studies, which compare assessed values to recent sales prices, would be available by Friday, but other data would take longer to collect and distribute.
Mr. Driscoll is one of the lawyers representing property owners who successfully challenged the county's base-year system and forced a county-wide reassessment.
His contention was that many owners of lower-value properties in poorer communities had lost or not gained as much value as real estate in wealthier neighborhoods since the 2002 reassessment. That meant they were paying proportionally higher property taxes.
In an interview after today's reassessment status conference, Mr. Driscoll said he questioned whether many of the new property values met International Association of Assessing Officers, or IAAO, standards for fairness and accuracy.
Wesley Graham, the county's acting chief assessment officer, said informal hearings on new assessments should help correct errors.
He described those informal appeals as a final quality-control check on the project.
Common Pleas Court Senior Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr., who was assigned the task of overseeing reassessment by the Supreme Court, presided at today's conference.
First Published February 2, 2012 12:38 pm
