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. Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11274/1179027-455.stm#ixzz1ZZzceJig
"The rest don't want to touch it," because they fear their home counties then would be required to revalue all their properties, he said.
When it was considering the question of whether Allegheny County needed to update its property values, the state Supreme Court had a chance to order all counties to reassess on a regular basis, Mr. Fontana said. It failed to do so, and most state legislators want to avoid taking any action on the issue, he said.
Mr. Gastgeb agreed the Legislature had to act. He pointed to what he said was the unfairness of Allegheny County residents being singled out for reassessment. "The fundamental problem is that the judiciary is making this decision for us," he said.
By far the largest portion of property tax revenues goes to school districts. Panel members suggested several alternatives to relying so heavily on real estate levies.
Mr. Fontana said he would prefer to see a shift to income and sales taxes to support public schools.
Mr. Raja described the real estate tax as "regressive," meaning it placed a heavier burden on people less able to afford it.
Mr. Fitzgerald said he favored an extraction tax on the natural gas recovered from Marcellus Shale to help support education. He pointed to the county's poured-drink tax as a measure that saved county property owners from an increase in the county millage rate.
One question submitted by an audience member asked about the disparity between the $250 million sales price for the U.S. Steel Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Downtown Pittsburgh, and its $175 million assessment.
All four speakers agreed that commercial properties should be valued according to the same standards as residential real estate. If the assessments on commercial buildings were made more accurate, "there would be no problem for Grandma's house in Brookline," Mr. Fontana said.