Allegheny County Council members tonight will consider two approaches to dealing with a controversial property reassessment effort.
Council President Rich Fitzgerald will ask his colleagues to back a lawsuit seeking to have the state's assessment system declared broken and ordering the state Legislature to fix it.
Mr. Fitzgerald, D-Squirrel Hill, argued that a court-ordered reassessment of all properties in Allegheny County was unfair when other counties across the state continue to base their real-estate taxes on assessments that are decades old.
Councilman Chuck McCullough, R-Upper St. Clair, on Monday unveiled another approach. He plans to introduce legislation that he said should "take the panic" out of the reassessment process. His measure also seeks to assure that no municipality or school district would be able to collect a windfall in additional real estate taxes if assessed values were to rise overall, he said.
Council will meet at 5 p.m. today in the Gold Room at the County Courthouse.
Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. McCullough are proposing their alternative responses to the $11 million reassessment ordered by county Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. as that effort is about half-completed. County officials on Wednesday are scheduled to provide Judge Wettick with a progress report.
Reassessment crews are spending an average of three to five minutes visiting each of the nearly 600,000 real estate parcels across the county. Owners will receive preliminary notice of the new values assigned to their homes and businesses starting in July.
Current property assessments in Allegheny County are based on 2002 values. Despite the nationwide economic recession that has slashed property values across the country, it is likely that the average assessment in Allegheny County will rise by a double-digit percentage. An "anti-windfall" provision in state law, however, requires that county, municipal and school district tax rates then be adjusted downward to reflect higher property values.
Mr. Fitzgerald's motion would tell council solicitor Jack Cambest to file a lawsuit with a state appeals court seeking to halt Allegheny County's reassessment until the Legislature revises the state assessment code.
"We want to stop the singled-out reassessment of Allegheny County," Mr. Fitzgerald said Monday.
His measure would not have to be sent to a council committee and could be voted on tonight.
Mr. McCullough's proposed ordinance would apply a "predetermined ratio," or PDR, to all the new assessments. PDRs are routinely used in other counties.
Allegheny County's PDR would be based on the overall average increase in market value of all properties across the county. Its effect would be to reduce assessment "sticker shock" for property owners and provide another protection against "windfall" increases in tax bills, he said.
For example, if the average assessed value of properties across the county rose 30 percent, the new market value assigned to each property would be reduced proportionally by applying the new PDR.
He used the example of a home now assessed at $100,000 house that saw its value increase to $130,000. The application of the PDR would reduce the assessment on which property taxes are calculated back down to about $100,000.
Another element of Mr. McCullough's plan would allow property owners to claim an assessed value for their properties based on its recent sales price or on a market value calculated by a certified appraiser. Such an approach would be fairer to taxpayers and has the potential to save the county money on reassessment and appeal costs, he said.
Democrats hold an 11-4 majority on County Council, making it less likely that Mr. McCullough's proposals will gain support or even get out of one of council's committees.