Proposal would block county property reassessment
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Allegheny County Council President Rich Fitzgerald on Tuesday announced a new effort to block a county-wide property reassessment that he said would destabilize the local economy and benefit neighboring counties.
Mr. Fitzgerald, D-Squirrel Hill, proposed a resolution that urges the Legislature to adopt a statewide moratorium on court-ordered reassessments and calls on new Gov. Tom Corbett, a Shaler homeowner, to support it.
He said the Allegheny County reassessment, ordered by Common Pleas Court Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. and upheld by the state Supreme Court, is discriminatory, because other counties aren't under such mandates. He said the reassessment will have a "chilling effect" on home-buying and investment.
"We've got to be competitive," Mr. Fitzgerald said at a morning news conference, predicting that higher taxes that follow a reassessment will drive business to neighboring counties that haven't been forced to revalue properties.
County Council met Tuesday night, and Mr. Fitzgerald's resolution was sent to council's government reform committee, which meets Thursday.
Councilman Chuck McCullough, R-Upper St. Clair, also has proposed assessment-related legislation. On Tuesday he presented an amendment that he said would strengthen Mr. Fitzgerald's resolution.
In announcing last week that he wouldn't seek a third term, County Executive Dan Onorato said he would spend his final year in office working to block the reassessment, which is well under way. Under Judge Wettick's ruling, property owners will begin to receive new assessment data this summer.
In 2009, the state House passed a moratorium on court-ordered assessments, with the goal of giving officials time to study assessment practices here and in other states. The measure never made it through the Senate.
Mr. Fitzgerald wants to revive the idea, and he wants help from Mr. Corbett, a Republican who took office Tuesday, and from legislative leaders who also hail from the county.
Rep. Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods, is majority leader in the new GOP-controlled House. Neither Mr. Corbett's office nor Mr. Turzai could be reached for comment.
The county's 2002 reassessment generated tens of thousands of appeals. Mr. Fitzgerald said the process "strikes fear in people."
He said stable property values over almost 10 years have helped the county weather the nation's economic downturn. Under a reassessment, he said, that security would be lost to neighboring counties that haven't reassessed for decades.
Allegheny County isn't alone, however. A judge also has ordered a reassessment for Washington County.
As Mr. Onorato did last week, Mr. Fitzgerald said he doubted that a reassessment would bring tax relief to homeowners in struggling communities. If property values go down in a neighborhood, he said, a school district may have to raise millage to compensate.
First Published January 19, 2011 12:00 am
