Judge decides it is time to take a look at 'newcomer tax' in Allegheny County
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A judge has ruled on a court agreement that could bring tax relief to thousands of homeowners in Allegheny County dealing with property assessment appeals.
The relief could date back six years.
Local couple Shaquille Charles and Madelyn Gioffree bought a home in Wilkinsburg before the pandemic for around $200,000. They recently learned their taxes would double from $3,500 to more than $9,000 after receiving a letter saying the school district requested a reassessment.
"If our taxes increase $1,000, sure, we can handle that. We would be happy to pay that to make the schools better. But $5,000? It's just untenable," Gioffre said.
The couple decided to become the lead plaintiffs in a suit filed against Allegheny County, challenging the way the county assesses properties and the ratio used to calculate taxes.
On Wednesday, the judge decided it was time to take a hard look at the process. Assessment consultant Mike Suley calls it a "win."
"We're going into a second phase and the second phase is essentially a recount and you're going to have the county assessors and the consultants for the plaintiffs working together to conduct a recount. And it should take about 30 days," said Suley.
He explains in 30 days, we'll know the new tax rate and move on from there.
"It's a win because the county blinked," Suley said. "They looked at all of our evidence and they didn't want to be in open court hearing the evidence. The county knows what we know, that they made some serious mistakes and that people have been overcharged on their taxes, newcomers, for the last six years."
Suley believes the county is inflating its assessment numbers and a change will save regular people thousands of dollars.
"Let's take a sale price of $100,000. Under the present system, your new assessment on appeal would be $81,100. If we are correct and the plaintiffs are correct and I am correct, it should be in the low 60s — 63, 64 percent — and if I'm right and that happens, that will trigger the school districts withdrawing thousands of their appeals. I predict it will happen."
Suley said it's up to the county to open a window for an appeals period. He believes the county will do that and it could give all those impacted by the "newcomer tax" over the past six years the ability to go in with the new ratio and see if they can lower their tax bills.