The Sto-Rox School District and a Franklin Park homeowner yesterday sued Allegheny County to block it from placing caps on property assessment increases.
In response, county Chief Executive Dan Onorato called on residents in Stowe and McKees Rocks to push the school district's board members and superintendent to withdraw the lawsuit.
Last month, County Council approved and Onorato signed legislation that would place a property's 2006 assessment value in one of six categories: decrease, no change, and increases of 1 percent, 2 percent, 3 percent or 4 percent.
Onorato first proposed the caps in February, after announcing that the county's approximately 550,000 properties would see average assessment increases of almost 20 percent. He said the changes would allow taxing bodies to reap potentially huge windfalls.
The civil complaint filed yesterday with Allegheny County Common Pleas Court argues, however, that the caps violate the uniformity clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution by applying different tax rates to different properties.
If the 2006 values are applied without caps, he said, 77 percent of property owners in the two municipalities will see assessment increases, and 35 percent of property owners will see increases of 20 percent or more.
So now we have lawsuits flying while people continue to lose their homes. Not to mention those of us who live in Alleghany county have no idea what are taxes will really be. We need a fair solution to all this NOW.
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