Pittsburgh Public Schools files lawsuit to force reassessment in Allegheny County
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pittsburgh Public Schools has filed a lawsuit to force Allegheny County to do a reassessment.
Solicitor Ira Weiss said the district asked County Executive Sara Innamorato to order a reassessment and gave her "reasonable time" to consider the request, but she hasn't acted. Weiss said the district doesn't take suing another government entity lightly, "However, desperate times call for serious measures."
Weiss told KDKA-TV last month that the district is facing a financial crisis because of a landslide of property tax assessment appeals primarily involving office buildings in Downtown Pittsburgh that cleared out during the pandemic. Taking advantage of a new formula to arrive at those assessments, dozens of building owners are getting massive reductions in their property tax bills and many are owed refunds from the school district, city and county.
"The bottom line is that the District cannot pay tens of millions of dollars in refunds. It also cannot sit idly by and watch the tax base literally disappear every time there is a wave of reductions and refunds due to the collapse of the assessment system in this County," Weiss said in a statement on Tuesday.
There hasn't been a reassessment in Allegheny County since 2012. Weiss said the refusal for a reassessment has created a system that is "broken" and in violation of the Uniformity Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
"This indefensible refusal to have a reassessment since 2012 has also created a situation where the lower valued properties are over assessed, and higher valued properties are underassessed. This means those at the lower end of the spectrum pay more taxes than they should and those at the higher end pay less than they should. That is simply illegal and unfair," Weiss said.
When asked about a reassessment last month, Innamorato acknowledged "the system is broken" but said "we can't rush into anything."
Inammorato's spokesperson Abigail Gardner said in a statement Tuesday, "The county executive is gathering data to analyze the implications of a countywide reassessment. Any reassessment must be revenue neutral and not a backdoor tax hike for the people of Allegheny County ... Ideally reassessments would be state-mandated, mundane, regular occurrences and not once per decade shocks to the system."
Dormont resident Peggy Lutz said she banked on this possibly happening.
"I think we should just expect it the price of everything is going up especially what taxes fund so they need to generate funds somewhere," she said.
She said all her bills keep going up, but if this does happen, at least it's for a good cause.
"I think it's almost society's responsibility to educate kids," she said.
Meanwhile, Weiss said if the situation isn't stabilized, the district won't be able to continue to fund early childhood, preschool or school programs that are essential.
If this did happen and some people possibly need to pay more taxes, it doesn't change who you pay your taxes to. So if you live outside of the city, you're not paying more to fund Pittsburgh Public Schools.