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Onorato: Property Reassessment System Is Broken

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May 4, 2009 5:41 pm US/Eastern

Onorato: Property Reassessment System Is Broken

Reporting
Jon Delano
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Upset over the state supreme court's ruling that threw out the county's property assessment system, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato is taking his case to Harrisburg.

Onorato said he wants the state legislature to put a hold on the ruling.

"I'm going to be working around the clock over the next several days and weeks and months to deal with this issue. We're not rolling over," Allegheny County executive Dan Onorato told reporters today.

"The spotlight has been put on Harrisburg. It's very clear. The Supreme Court said it, Judge (Stanton) Wettick said it, I said it now -- that the system is broken -- that this is an appropriate discussion for the legislature, not for the judiciary, and not for local governments to try to fix. It's a state problem, and we need a state solution."

Dan Onorato wants Pennsylvania to join 48 other states that have a comprehensive statewide reassessment program.

And, in the meantime, Onorato wants the General Assembly to halt any further reassessments.

He says that would especially protect Allegheny County property owners from tax increases from higher assessments.

"If this property reassessment is allowed to go through, you will have massive property tax increases in Allegheny County, which we do not want and it should not happen. We should be able to stop this."

Onorato called on state lawmakers to stop any reassessment in the county -- to buy time to enact a comprehensive statewide reassessment system.

"The system doesn't work. The system is broken, and a simple court order doesn't fix it. It just causes a tax increase."

Not true, says attorney Don Driscoll who represents homeowners who sued Allegheny County.

"Taxes for most people are not going to go up. There have been news reports that all property owners in Allegheny County are going to experience a tax increase. That's absolutely untrue. I believe that that's been totally blown out of proportion."

Onorato says there's no way to complete a reassessment this year, as originally ordered by Judge Wettick.

"A reassessment effective for January 2010 is just virtually impossible," says Onorato. "That's just out of the question."

Driscoll disagrees.

"They should have done it by March 31st. They could have been working on this the past year, and actually they were ordered to work on it this past year. There's really no excuse for not being ready at this time."

And former county solicitor Ira Weiss -- who now represents school districts -- says Onorato is trying to delay the inevitable.

"It's all politics. It's all about his running for governor, and he would like nothing better than to rope-a-dope this until after next year's primary, and it's my hope that Judge Wettick won't allow him to do that."

Onorato says this fight has nothing to do with his running for governor next year.

And he says his focus is on a bi-partisan statewide solution that ends court-ordered reassessments once and for all.

That's exactly what could happen as early as Thursday afternoon when Judge Wettick meets with lawyers in this case.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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