Pittsburgh Public Schools [PPS] has filed a lawsuit against Allegheny County to compel a county-wide reassessment of properties. 

The filing comes after the school board unanimously voted last month to authorize district solicitor Ira Weiss to take legal action. The lawsuit names the county and County Executive Sara Innamorato in her official capacity as defendants.

PPS officials said they would approach the county executive’s office to consider a voluntary reassessment, but two weeks later that window is closed, according to Weiss. 

“We have provided the county executive with a reasonable time to consider our request to order the reassessment,” Weiss wrote in an email statement. “She has replied with the same general statements about more ‘review and study.’ The time has passed for that.”. 

Abigail Gardner, spokesperson for the county executive’s office, wrote in a statement that the administration is gathering data to analyze the implications of a reassessment.

“Any reassessment must be revenue-neutral and not a backdoor tax hike for the people of Allegheny County and should protect seniors and low-income homeowners in the process,” she said, echoing Innamorato’s campaign position. “Ideally, reassessments would be state-mandated, mundane, regular occurrences and not once-per-decade shocks to the system. Our preference is to work with stakeholders to build a more predictable system for everyone.” 

The county assigns tax values to properties, which are used in county, municipal and school district property tax bills. Property owners, municipalities and districts can appeal those values.

The lawsuit states that the county’s assessment scheme violates the state’s Uniformity Clause that requires taxing bodies to evenly tax and assess properties within their jurisdiction. 

The district’s decision to sue follows appeals filed by Downtown property owners to reduce the assessed values on major commercial properties in the wake of the 2020 pandemic.

In addition to plummeting commercial values, the district’s tax base has also suffered from a drop in the Common Level Ratio [CLR] from 87.5% to 54.5%. The CLR is a metric used to value properties reassessed after the base year. The revised ratio resulted from a 2022 lawsuit brought by property owners, and made appeals more favorable to owners.

“Many appeals are still pending, and it is anticipated that the commercial tax base will continue to erode due to commercial property owners double dipping on their assessment reductions through the application of the CLR,” the lawsuit states.

The last reassessment took place in 2012, and the question of when, and if, to revisit that featured heavily in last year’s county executive contest.

The county’s inaction since 2012 has “created a situation where the lower valued properties are over-assessed, and higher valued properties are under-assessed,” Weiss said. “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.”

PPS currently faces about 940 active appeals that could cost it $11.4 million in annual tax revenue. According to district CFO Ron Joseph, PPS will deplete its fund balance by 2026 and has projected a growing operating deficit. 

During an education committee meeting last week, Joseph said assessment appeals for 2022-23 are projected to reduce the district’s tax property revenues by $4 million. Additionally, PPS might also have to pay $7.4 million in tax refunds, he said. 

City Controller Rachael Heisler cautioned PPS officials not to expect quick results from the lawsuit, given the immediacy of the district’s financial challenges. 

“The big issue I have about the lawsuit is you don’t file it and three months later have a result. You’re years away from collecting revenue on a reassessment. The district is in a much more delicate place than even the city,” she said. 

Charlie Wolfson contributed to this report.

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org. 

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Lajja is the K-12 Education Reporter at PublicSource. Originally from India, she moved to the States in 2021 to pursue a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Southern California. Before...