City council OKs aid package for residents appealing assessments
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Pittsburgh City Councilman Corey O'Connor, second from right, responds to a question from Councilman Ricky Burgess, right, about the bill Mr. O'Connor was sponsoring with Bill Peduto to establish a program to offer assessment appeal services. Listening are council members, from left, R. Daniel Lavelle, Theresa Kail-Smith and Patrick Dowd.
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Pittsburgh City Council gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a package of help for homeowners who want to fight new property assessments, but it won't nail down eligibility guidelines until next week.
Council also advanced a bill giving homeowners until March 30 to pay property taxes at a 2 percent discount.
Ordinarily, homeowners must pay by Feb. 10 to receive the discount. Because of the delay in a court decision on whether to use the new numbers -- Common Pleas Senior Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. put that off until 2013 -- tax bills won't be mailed until early March, so officials decided to extend the discount period.
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl last week proposed subsidizing appraisals for homeowners who want to fight the court-ordered assessments. On Monday, Councilmen Corey O'Connor and Bill Peduto and Controller Michael Lamb proposed that residents get additional assistance.
The ideas floated by the four officials were collapsed into the bill advanced Wednesday. The city would negotiate discounted fees with a number of local appraisers and pay half of each homeowner's appraisal fee. It also would provide free services, including one-on-one assistance formulating an appeal, "house calls" for shut-ins and assistance arguing cases before the Allegheny County appeals board.
"You'll have somebody sitting there with you if you need it," Mr. Peduto said.
Mr. Ravenstahl had proposed $100,000 for appraisal subsidies. The legislation sets aside $150,000 for all services, which would be supplemented by city employees, volunteers and vendors.
"We have three lawyers on staff in our office. They will be part of this process," Mr. Lamb said, adding that at least one neighborhood legal group also wants to participate.
The legislation would provide the appraisal subsidy and other services to homeowners whose current assessment totaled $150,000 or less. Council said it will consider lowering that amount to $100,000 or $125,000. It also may add language allowing all city homeowners to take advantage of discounted appraisal rates, even if they don't meet the threshold for the city's appraisal subsidy.
A final vote is scheduled for Tuesday. Council is fast-tracking the legislation because city homeowners face an April 2 deadline for filing a formal appeal.
City residents will get two tax bills this year, one for city and school district taxes and another for the special Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh tax -- one quarter of a mill -- that voters approved in a November referendum.
First Published February 2, 2012 12:00 am
