Aug 24, 2006 7:05 am US/Eastern
County Property Assessment System To Face Trial
PITTSBURGH (AP) ―
A trial to determine whether Allegheny County's property assessment system is legal has been set for December 11th.
Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato last year filed appeals on behalf of thousands of residence whose property is valued above 2002 levels.
Onorato and County Council decided to set 2002 as the base year for assessments because they said if current property values were used this year about 9,000 property owners who brought property since 2002 would have faced large tax increases.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick set the trial date after meeting privately with attorneys for the county and two groups of homeowners.
The homeowners groups claim the new system amounts to an illegal assessment freeze that penalized property owners with decreasing or stagnant assessment values in poorer areas of the county, but gave giving tax breaks to property owners with increasing values in nicer areas.
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