Onorato wants lid on appeals of property values

Assessment challenges would be limited to 4%
Friday, March 04, 2005

By Ed Blazina, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato's plan to cap property assessment increases at 4 percent for 2006 also would tie the hands of the assessment appeals board, prohibiting it from further increasing taxable assessments on appeals from school boards and local governments.

Onorato, acting on a request from County Council last week, agreed yesterday to release proposed assessments for 2006 on the county's Web site. The numbers haven't been finalized, but Onorato agreed to release them as part of his push to have council approve a change in the administrative code to limit assessment increases to 4 percent.

Onorato wants to limit the increases because the average property values in the county would increase by about 20 percent, triggering what he calls "massive" tax increases if school districts and municipalities failed to reduce their tax rates by an offsetting amount.

He wants to place assessments into six categories: assessment reduction, no change or increases of 1, 2, 3 or 4 percent.

more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05063/466166.stm