The County has told the Judge who ordered the real estate tax reassessment that they are behind schedule due to lack of qualified assessors needed to complete the process on time. The original plan was to have the preliminary assessments done sometime in 2011. The latest news is that May of 2012 may be the earliest date that the certified market values will be ready. Informal appeals (preliminary review by taxpayers of their values) can not proceed until then. The latest comment from the County is they doubt there will be time...

Opponents of the Court-ordered property tax reassessment in Allegheny County allege that Allegheny is being treated unfairly because other surrounding counties use the base year system and are not forced to reassess, putting Allegheny at a commercial and competitive disadvantage. That is an inaccurate and untrue statement. Remember that the suit to force reassessment was brought by taxpayers who were forced to pay taxes on property that was artificially valued higher than the actual value due to Allegheny's base year system. Even...

The obvious facts are that the people in charge of taxation don't care if they get 75% of their money from one person and 25% from another even though both own properties of equal value, as long as they get 100% and don't jeopardize elections. Voters are inflamed when their taxes are raised and local politicos fear that new and current market values set by county-wide reassessment will raise tax bills and they fear for their electoral survival. So they invent false reasons why reassessment is bad and scare the taxpayers with...