Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

hypotenoos t1_j9quuzv wrote

The only fair way is to do regular reassessments but they tried that already and everyone lost their shit in the 00’s.

A serious, reliable County-wide reassessment will cost millions and take some time. No one has the political will to pay for it, conduct it and then deal with the aftermath.

Butler hasn’t reassessed since 1969 and only the lack of a complaint from someone with deep pockets to pay for the lawsuit has kept them out of court. They don’t get into the shenanigans with new buyers though either. Most of the battles take place over yearly challenges from big retail and industrial properties.

Meanwhile Beaver is facing the reality of a county wide, court ordered reassessment due to a lawsuit.

20

Vozegro t1_j9td9w0 wrote

Yeah I think it’s funny when people get upset they have to pay taxes they should owe. Funny when they think the government should provide them so much as long as they don’t have to pay for it.

−1

hypotenoos t1_j9thwdl wrote

There is no escaping the property taxes, but I do think it’s wrong to unequally apply those taxes.

The “newcomer tax” is unfair because it’s not uniformly applied and even moreso due to the manipulation of the common level ratio to shift the tax burden to newer owners or newer homes.

10

murphey_griffon t1_j9uzkii wrote

Had I known about this when moving from out of state, I wouldn't have bought a house in Allegheny county. We got immediately hit by the school for a 36% increase in the house estimate despite all of our neighbors having very similar houses remaining the same just because we bought a house... When we tried to fight it they basically laughed at us. The school districts have layers on payroll just for this. Imagine how much we are paying just for these layers because of an unfair system.

​

As a side note, anyone have a recommendation of a layer I could contact to send in an appeal on the east side of town? I don't mind paying the tax, but I do mind that a neighbors house that is bigger costs $1400 less a year because they bought it before me.

1