Thousands more dollars wasted on court cases trying to make a system fair that is corrupt and rotten to the core.
Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato was right in saying....that the (assessment\reassesment) process was too flawed and unpredictable to create fair values for more than 500,000 residential properties. It is just as true in the 66 OTHER Pennsylvania counties as it is in Allegheny County. That is exactly what STOP (Stop Taxing Our Properties) and the 118,369 citizens who have signed our petitions have been saying for four years. Remember, Allegheny County has blown over $30 Million in taxpayers money trying to correct the assessment\reassessment system. They have hired the supposed 'best property tax experts' over a four or five year period to improve the system, and the results were so out of whack County Executive Onorato refused to use the 2006 figures, instead implementing his 'base year' system which is now being attacked in court. Judge Wettick approved of Onorato's base year plan before it went in effect.
The STOP Primary Residence Protection Plan would abolish ALL property taxes on primary residences. That would eliminate all assessments and reassessments, and eliminate all property taxes--school, county and municipal--from all primary residences (homesteads and farmsteads) and replace it with a 1.7% increase in the sales tax rate (with NO broadening of sales tax categories--NO taxing of supermarket food, clothing, shoes, coats, boots or anything that is not now taxed) and an increase of 1 % in the STATE personal income tax rate.
The Legislative Budget and Finance Committee--a bi partisan committee of the legislature which analyzes budget and finance matters for the House and Senate, was ordered by PA Senate in a 50-0 vote to determine if the STOP proposal is financially viable. The report, released in February 2006 proved that the STOP plan's financial data is correct and that the plan would properly finance our schools, county and municipal governments now...and in the future.
It is very important that any property tax reform plan considered...ABOLISHES ALL property taxes on primary residences. If any one of the three property taxes--school, county or municipal--is kept in place, then the corrupt assessment\reassessment of ALL properties must continue.
The STOP plan not only eliminates the aggrivation homeowners feel with each reassessment, it also cuts the size and cost of government. For example: If all 500,000 primary residences in Allegheny County were NO LONGER assessed\reassessed and taxed under the STOP plan, Allegheny county would NO LONGER assess and reassess 500,000 properties--and could cut their assessment office budget by at least 2/3rds--saving about $4 MILLION in taxpayers money or more EVERY YEAR. The economic boom created by eliminating all property taxes on primary residences would be felt in every corner of the state...and greatly increase Pennsylvania's business climate and jobs, help reverse our outmigration of citizens, stop sheriff sales of primary residences, save the lottery fund $61.3 milllion a year, and permit Pennsylvania homeowners to truly own their homes for the first time in history. Now you just rent your home from your school board, county and municipal governments. Each year, those governmental bodies determine the rent you pay.
Tell the governor and your legislators and all challengers for these offices...you favor TRUE property tax reform--the ABOLISHMENT OF ALL PROPERTY TAXES ON PRIMARY RESIDENCES--and you want the right to vote on a constitutional amendment that would permit the shift from primary residence property taxes to sales and income taxes to fund our schools, counties and municipalities. --Bob Logue, STOP Primary Residence Protection Plan.
Allegheny County's property assessment system headed for trial
Thursday, August 24, 2006
By Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Allegheny County's 2002 "base year" property assessment system is going on trial.
In a closed-door meeting with attorneys yesterday, Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. set Dec. 11 as the start date for a legal battle over whether the county's decision to stick with 4-year-old assessments violates the Pennsylvania Constitution. His eventual ruling likely will have implications for how every county in the state assesses property value.
Two groups of homeowners have sued Allegheny County, arguing that the base year places an unfair tax burden on properties with falling or stagnant values.
The judge yesterday also scheduled a hearing next Thursday in a separate lawsuit, filed by a Wilkinsburg couple, that claims the county's assessment appeals board must consider current market values, even under the base year.
"I think Judge Wettick realizes this is a problem that is bigger than Allegheny County," said Charles McCullough, a former county solicitor who now represents Upper St. Clair and Upper St. Clair School District. "He wants to get this settled once and for all."
Mr. McCullough's clients, along with dozens of other school districts and municipalities, have taken a keen interest in the progress of the lawsuits. Millions of dollars in potential tax revenue is at stake.
County Chief Executive Dan Onorato last year put a halt to regular reassessments, saying the process was too flawed and unpredictable to create fair values for more than 500,000 residential properties. Instead, he and County Council adopted 2002, the year of the last full reassessment, as a base, meaning property owners won't see any changes for years to come. It's a practice used by neighboring counties.
In March, Judge Wettick ruled that state law permits the base year approach, and the two groups of homeowners then decided to mount a constitutional challenge.
Donald Driscoll, an attorney representing homeowners from Braddock and the Hill District, had asked for a ruling without a trial, but Judge Wettick yesterday told lawyers involved with the case that he wanted as many facts as possible to be on record since any decision likely will be appealed.
Mr. Driscoll said he will call expert witnesses who can explain how the base year is heightening tax inequality among property owners in Allegheny County.
"The impact of this on specific homeowners is very significant," he said.
One client, Kenneth Pierce of Braddock, said he would eagerly testify on his own situation. He argues that his Camp Avenue property's $27,900 assessment is artificially high under the base year system.
"[Onorato] sure didn't help me," Mr. Pierce said. "My taxes were raised. They doubled."
County Solicitor Michael Wojcik said he didn't think the testimony of individual homeowners would be relevant in the trial. The county, he said, will present experts on the history of the base year system, which the state Legislature created in 1982 as an alternative to regular reassessments.
Some counties haven't conducted a new assessment in decades. Blair County, for instance, last assessed property in 1958.
Next Thursday, Judge Wettick will hear arguments in a separate lawsuit filed against the county and the seven-member appeals board. The plaintiffs, James P. and Jennifer Daugherty of Todd Street in Wilkinsburg, bought their home in 2004 for $31,500, although their property's assessment is stuck at $66,900. They claim that state law allows them to file an appeal using current market value to win a reduction.
Appeals board members are hoping for a quick decision in the case because they have already started hearings for thousands of homeowners.
This week the board also started hearings for more than 11,000 property owners who bought their homes after 2002 and saw school districts or municipalities win assessment increases. The county has filed new appeals on behalf of those residents in an effort to reverse the increases and bring them in line with the base year.
At next Thursday's hearing, Judge Wettick also will consider whether taxing bodies can present recent sales prices as evidence of a home's value in 2002 when going before the appeals board.
Martin W. Sheerer, solicitor for the Fox Chapel School District, worried that the judge's ruling in either lawsuit could upend results from thousands of appeals.
"There's enormous interest by all school districts," he said. "There's a great chance that all the time and expense that went into [appeals] could be wasted."
Visitor Comments:
- Bernie Taylor says :
- "There is NOTHING more accurate and fair than the purchase price being used as the assesed value."
- Benjamin Franklin - Anonymous says :
- I DOUBT BEN FRANKLIN SAID THAT
- Real Estate Tax Payer says :
- Its the Primary Residence that use the schools, that should pay for the school taxes, not the real estate owners that do not use the schools.
- Anonymous says :
- I think this is a great idea. Property tax is immoral. It is hard enough to buy a property, then the government makes you pay just as much as monthly payments would be for the rest of your life in taxes...or you lose your home. What the? I think we need to respect peoples homes as a human right that once bought cannot be taken away, and should not be taxed. Give us a flat sales tax and nothing else...that is what I say.
- Gary Dugan says :
- In West View our 3 bedroom ranch costs us over 3000.00 a yr. in property tax and we can't sell our home for what it is worth because officials of West View conspired against our rights and deprived us of rights acting under color of law benefiting a business with a private gain, unlawful use of a residential zoned lot along with set back violations and a bldg. not in character with the existing neighborhood. The front yard a parking lot serving a business which sits directly in front of our home by not notifying neighboring property owners of the violations nor holding a variance hearing that couldn't be granted anyway all of which makes our property undesirable. We can't even enjoy it anymore in addition to the nuisance they permitted in front of our home. 7 yrs of torture. Certain Officials of West View are poor examples of public officials for students considering public service.
We complain to the proper authorities about this criminal conspiracy and they act disinterested (aid and abett the apprehension and prosicution of those responsable for obstructing the administration of law, breach of official duty,conspiracy against rights,deprivation of rights acting under color of law & etc).
As citizens we have a right to honest services expected from our local, state and federal officials. At this point I'm about to quit paying any tax for I can't even get the little of what the constitution garrantees us as citizens like due process or equal protection of the law.
This is supposed to be a civilized society. How can it be when our laws are not upheld nor enforced by those who are responsible for carrying out justice. 7 yr.s of complaining & criminal complaints now and no remedy no restitution and no prosicution. This broken gov't deserves nothing.
Everyone should pay for the education of our young citizens. The only ones benefiting over property tax assessments are the attorneys handling cases right now as if this was all planned.
Sincerely,
Another abused citizen
Gary Dugan
PS
Soon, the shooting will be here not in Iraq if the trust is continuously broken and citizens rights continue to be oppressed. Unfair taxes just more fuel for the fire. I believe more and more citizens about had their fill of corruption. - Pat Fields says :
- Hi Folks,
I've been studying this question of property tax for over nine years now, to come to the conclusion that "we're not in Kansas any more".
Here's five irrefutable facts to cogitate... (1) our constitution reserves our indefeasible right to own land and the property in it ... (2) the federal constitution demands that no State can make any thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debt ... (3) No rule in either Webster's or the Oxford dictionaries allows for any normal English word to be fully transcribed in capital lettering ... (4) The federal constitution allows that in exclusively federal or State property, no claims of one or the other is prejudiced by the federal constitution (property is legally defined as authorities and obligations attendant to a thing, not the thing itself) ... (5) On March 3rd of 1791, George Washington laid federal districts over each of the State territories.
As to fact one: Domicilliary citizens inhabiting the organic State of Pennsylvania can not be taxed in their private lands. Two: Tax on Pennsylvania (read: 'district of PA') land is levied and collected in Reserve Bank notes. Three: That tax is demanded of fictitious persons (according to the two highest documented authorities on the English language) designated by titles in fully capitalized style. Four: The General Assembly stipulated that our State's title is officially abbreviated as 'Penna.'. Five: Congress stipulated that the federal government's abbreviation is rather 'PA'.
Now, it may at first appear unbelievable, but that list of facts are facts ... My studies indicate that sometime about 1913, State governments abandoned their original jurisdictions and re-located their operations in the federal district jurisdictions that Washington created in order to use the forbidden 'Bills of Credit' (Hint: Jurisdictions are not bounded places, they are authorities over subjects in those places). As the inevitable inflation caused by the enormous stream of those bills began to bear down on governmental costs, they 'corporated' people's English names to legally remove their natural rights (what is created, is under the complete control of its creator) and coerce them into using more and more specific federal references to their lands (for reasons of fixing domicil) so they could tax anything they convinced themselves wouldn't cause riots in the streets the following morning.
Remember ... State constitutions only have effect in exclusively State jurisdictions and in those of exclusively federal jurisdiction … no constitutions at all ... nor any bills of rights!
The really worst part is that the house of notes the Banksters, Barristocracy and Politicos have built is about to implode. Leveraged out some 56 times, the total liabilities of credit-money is valued in excess of 600 trillion Reserve Bank
'dollars' and a few tens of trillions of the foundational funding (in balooned real estate values) has already disintegrated. When the credit cards and other pillars of underlying debt give way, the domino effect on the rest of the leveraging will plunge the world into total financial havoc.
That's when the world's 'nobility' of Politicos, Banksters and Barristocrats will start trying to eat their serfs alive.
You think this property tax thing is bad? Friends, you ain't seen nothing like what's down the pike a little ways further.
My Dad taught me that "Government exists for one purpose alone ... to exert control. If you don't control it ... it eventually controls everything."
Patrick Neil Fields
Philadelphia city & county
The commonwealth of Pennsylvania
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