County executive hopefuls Fitzgerald and Raja support statewide assessment
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Both candidates for Allegheny County executive threw their support behind statewide standards for property assessment and backed alternatives to real estate taxes.
Democrat Rich Fitzgerald and Republican D. Raja made their remarks during a panel discussion Friday before members of the Realtors Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh.
The organization invited the two hopefuls as well as state Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, and county Councilman Vince Gastgeb, R-Bethel Park, to discuss the controversial court-ordered reassessment plan.
That two-year effort to place new values on the almost 600,000 commercial and residential properties in Allegheny County is nearly complete.
Mr. Fitzgerald, a former president of county council, has been a long-time critic of the project. He said again that if he were elected county executive, he would refuse to send out the new certified assessment numbers early next year unless the Legislature adopted statewide standards for valuing properties.
Mr. Fitzgerald said he understood that might put him on a collision course with Common Pleas Court Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr., who is overseeing the effort.
Certified property assessments are used to calculate real-estate tax bills. Mr. Fitzgerald said property owners should have an opportunity to appeal their new values before they have to pay taxes based on them. County officials should delay at least a year before using the new numbers, he said.
Mr. Raja, a businessman and Mt. Lebanon commissioner, said politicians had too long avoided dealing with the issue of consistent reassessment. He pledged to work with Gov. Tom Corbett and members of both houses of the Legislature to craft a plan covering all counties in the state.
Mr. Fontana warned that might not be easy. On Friday he reintroduced a bill that would impose a moratorium on court-ordered reassessment. His legislation has seven co-sponsors, he said, but it is unlikely to get many more votes in the 50-member state Senate.
First Published October 1, 2011 12:00 am
