Real Estate Assessments
I am surprised that more has not been made of the compromise between the county and the School Districts (McGuffey & Washingon) which filed a lawsuit forcing Washington County to re-assess the real estate values which was last done in 1981.
How long it will take and what criteria that will used are at this point uncertain. While it may help growing communities which have a steady flow of new housing and probably help others maintain a reasonable tax base the long range results in the smaller School Districts may not be positive.
Depending on the demographics any drastic changes may have the opposite effect they were intended to have. Let's hope that logic and common sense prevail on this issue and that it works to be a positive experience, unlike what happened in Allegheny County.
How long it will take and what criteria that will used are at this point uncertain. While it may help growing communities which have a steady flow of new housing and probably help others maintain a reasonable tax base the long range results in the smaller School Districts may not be positive.
Depending on the demographics any drastic changes may have the opposite effect they were intended to have. Let's hope that logic and common sense prevail on this issue and that it works to be a positive experience, unlike what happened in Allegheny County.
Labels: Real estate assessments
posted by Paul Sroka at
1:26 PM
2 Comments:
This topic was fascinating to me when I moved to Pennsylvania. I lived in three other states before I came here and they all had regular real estate assessments. I first lived in Blair County, which hadn't had assessments in the past 50 or so years. It seems to me that if it was done regularly, some of the problems could be avoided. I don't remember the other states having the problems that Allegheny County did.
I don't see the likelihood of any county acting on reassessment until the State Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of "base year" systems. This should happen within 3-6 months.
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