As many as 70,000 Allegheny County property owners will get their 15 minutes of fame when they make informal appeals of their new assessments, the judge overseeing the project was advised today.

Wesley Graham, the county's chief property assessment officer, told Common Pleas Court Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. that the county would hire or assign 71 hearing officers to handle those expected appeals. Mr. Graham estimated the average proceeding would take about 15 minutes.

Mr. Graham made his prediction during a status conference to review progress on the county's court-ordered property reassessment.

The county was to have preliminary assessment numbers ready by July, but that date has been pushed back until the end of January. Certified numbers would not be released until April.

The delay is causing budget headaches for municipal governments, school districts and the county itself as officials prepare their next spending plans. Lacking access to new assessment numbers, they will have to estimate what millage rates will be needed in 2012 to balance their budgets.

Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, the city school district and all other municipalities must approve their budgets by Dec. 31, which is three months before the date when final assessment numbers will be available. While the county's other school districts don't have to pass their spending plans for the 2012-13 fiscal year until June 30, state law requires that they take their first planning steps in January.

Informal appeals will take about two months, delaying the release of final assessment numbers by that amount of time. When Judge Wettick asked Mr. Graham how important that step was to the reassessment process, he said it should not be skipped.

Judge Wettick scheduled his next update on reassessment for 10:30 a.m. Sept. 15. He may rule then on an alternate plan to have new assessment numbers released for Pittsburgh and the small borough of Mount Oliver first. While that plan would aid Pittsburgh city and school officials prepare their spending plans, it would mean further delay in releasing certified numbers for the rest of the county until the middle of May.