A code enforcement officer and newly paved roads are some of the everyday municipal services that Mon Valley communities and school districts are forgoing this year, after reassessment of U.S. Steel’s properties.
From North Braddock to Clairton, communities are grappling with more than $1 million in property tax losses this year, even as the company pumps millions into its Mon Valley Works holdings following its acquisition by Nippon Steel. Local leaders are waiting on a countywide reassessment, which could help alleviate the tax losses from assessment appeals.
“We’re just kind of left trying to figure out how to do the best we can with what we have left,” said Cory Ruff, borough manager of North Braddock, which is losing 10% of its property tax take over the next two years as a result of the U.S. Steel appeals.
In North Braddock, one less code enforcement officer
U.S. Steel owns 99 parcels in Allegheny County, mostly connected to its Mon Valley Works — a sprawling, interconnected industrial operation made up of the Edgar Thomson Plant in the Braddock area, Irvin Works in West Mifflin and the Clairton Coke Works in Clairton.
Prior to the company’s 2025 property tax appeals, U.S. Steel’s holdings had an assessed value of $58.5 million. That’s now dropped to $33.7 million. For the boroughs, townships and school districts in the steel giant’s Mon Valley footprint, that totals at least $1.09 million per year in lost tax revenue across the region.
North Braddock, a 1.5 square-mile borough just outside of Pittsburgh, is home to the majority of Edgar Thomson.
The property previously generated roughly $79,000 for the borough in property taxes, or around 11% of its annual real estate tax intake. After appeals, that dropped to $34,000.
That $45,000 tax loss is complicated by a settlement the company reached with Mon Valley municipalities and school districts.
Property owners can appeal their assessments each year. When the county’s Board of Property Assessment Appeals and Review changes an assessment, it uses a calculation meant to roughly equalize the assessments of similar properties that were assessed at different times.
If that results in a lower tax bill, taxing bodies typically issue partial refunds to property owners.
“We remain committed to the long-term future of the Mon Valley, our employees and communities.”
Amanda Malkowski, U.S. Steel
Instead of taking the refunds, U.S. Steel opted for a different arrangement for just over 50 of its highest-value properties. The company agreed to forgo refunds from the municipalities and school districts for the past two years. Instead, it claimed a tax credit for those years, applied to its bills for 2026 and 2027.
U.S. Steel spokesperson Amanda Malkowski said in a statement that the settlement was a “practical resolution” that avoided prolonged litigation.
“Importantly, we agreed to forgo significant refunds associated with prior tax years so that school districts and municipalities would not experience significant impacts to existing operating budgets. The agreement established fair assessments while providing certainty for all parties,” she said.
The court-appointed special master, Michelle Lally, declined to comment on the settlement. U.S. Steel’s attorney, Edward Hirshberg, did not respond to requests for comment.
For North Braddock, the settlement means the company won’t pay property taxes this year and next, and will only pay half of its new $34,000 tax bill in 2028. That’s a total loss of $175,000 over the next three years, versus pre-settlement levels.
The budget hole required the borough to forgo hiring a new code enforcement officer who would have also worked East Pittsburgh and Braddock. North Braddock alone has had around 400 code violations since the beginning of this year, according to Ruff.
“Unfortunately, it’s just the nature of the beast given the relationship we have with someone like U.S. Steel,” he said. “U.S. Steel is such a massive part of the borough … I can’t really think of a good word to describe the relationship. It’s a different kind of relationship.”
Edgar Thomson is split across Braddock, North Braddock, East Pittsburgh and North Versailles. Based on Braddock’s current property tax millage rate of 13.65 mills, the nearly $2,892,000 loss in Edgar Thomson’s assessed value means a roughly $39,000 per year drop in property tax revenue.
Braddock Council President LuJuan Reeves directed questions to Manager Lou Ransom, who acknowledged, but did not respond to, requests for comment.
Schools: Credit arrangement ‘not typical’
Woodland Hills School District, covering a 12-community area east of Pittsburgh containing the Edgar Thomson Plant, projects a $50.2 million real estate tax take for the 2026-27 school year, up from the $47.3 million budgeted for the previous school year.
The district intends to boost real estate tax revenues in spite of an overall $27.7 million decline in assessed value by raising millage. Since 2024, Woodland Hills increased its rate by just over 2.5 mills to 29.08 mills.
The assessed value of U.S. Steel property in the district has dropped by almost $6.7 million, which at the current millage rate means a $197,000 loss in annual revenue, or less than 1% of the district’s real estate revenue this school year.
A spokesperson for the district declined to comment.
Braddock debates U.S. Steel project, amid resident transparency concerns
School district and municipal attorney Lee Dellecker, who previously worked for the county on assessment law, called the credit arrangement “not a typical resolution,” and said it may have been advocated for by the hardest-hit communities who may not have been able to pay property tax refunds to U.S. Steel following the reassessments.
“To appeal all of their parcels simultaneously in a single year, it’s not something we see very frequently,” said Dellecker.
West Mifflin: ‘Something has to give’
West Mifflin and its school district have lost the most from U.S. Steel’s appeals and settlement: roughly $11 million in taxable value across its properties.
The West Mifflin Area School District’s tax take from 13 parcels appealed by U.S. Steel decreased by $273,000 per year, according to the district’s Finance and Operations Director Ed Wehrer.
“This decrease certainly has significant impacts on the district’s operating budget,” he said in a statement, adding that the district expects some of the lost tax revenue could be returned in the future once the company’s pledged upgrades are realized.
U.S. Steel recently announced up to $3 billion in upgrades to Edgar Thomson, but no new investment has yet been announced for the Irvin or Clairton plants. Part of the upgrades involve moving the hot strip mill in Irvin to Edgar Thomson.
Earlier this year, the district’s board of directors approved a tax hike for the school year.
West Mifflin Borough is losing out on $127,000 per year from the U.S. Steel properties, according to Borough Manager Brian Kamauf. Under the settlement, U.S. Steel will pay “zero or very little” in property taxes in 2026 and 2027, he said.
Kamauf said that while the loss was significant, it wouldn’t force service cuts. “We want to make sure nothing’s ever jeopardized, and I don’t think any of our services are. It’s a struggle. It’s a challenge that everybody is facing,” he said.
Borough Council Vice President Dan Davis stressed that U.S. Steel isn’t the only company appealing its property tax assessments. Around half of West Mifflin’s taxable property is classified as commercial, Kamauf said.
That abnormally high level of commercial property under appeal, coupled with the borough’s relatively high ratio of tax-exempt property, could shift the tax burden to the borough’s residential property owners, said Davis.
“We’ve been getting hit every year for the last four or five years on these reassessments. This just is another one that you just didn’t see coming,” he said.
Davis said that overall property tax reassessments, which he estimates at $1 million per year in lost revenue, could push the borough to raise taxes or scale back basic services such as paving roads.
“Something has to give,” he said.
Davis and Kamauf pointed to U.S. Steel’s community involvement. The company recently donated a utility vehicle to the borough, and has funded the Police Department’s annual toy drive.
“If we call them, they’re there to help. They’re great community partners,” Kamauf said.
U.S. Steel has donated to Mon Valley communities over the years. For example, the company donated to this year’s rendition of McKeesport’s International Village, an annual international food festival dating back decades, which eliminated the usual $2 entry fee.
The company has invested more than $2 million into community organizations in Western Pennsylvania in 2026, according to Malkowski. She also highlighted the company’s past commitments, such as sponsoring the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Reading Champions program and the recently-opened U.S. Steel Community Field at Hazelwood Green.
“We remain committed to the long-term future of the Mon Valley, our employees and communities,” she said in a statement.
‘Kicking a vending machine’
US Steel is “doing what every other larger corporation has been doing — taking advantage of the common level ratio,” Davis said, referring to a key instrument used in the appeals process.
The common level ratio is a calculation of all qualifying property sales in the county to their assessed value. It’s meant to roughly equalize the assessments of similar properties, whether they were assessed during the last countywide reassessment, which pegged taxes to 2012 values, or subsequently through the appeals process.
The State Tax Equalization Board sets the ratio for each county. A decline in the common level ratio means that for many property owners, an appeal will yield a lower tax bill, which is particularly beneficial to businesses like U.S. Steel, according to Pittsburgh Public Schools solicitor Ira Weiss.
“With COVID and the devaluation of properties, it’s been the perfect storm of problems, tax-wise,” said Weiss. “It’s the Bermuda Triangle, if you will.”
Property tax appeals across almost all property types exploded in 2022 and 2023, after a lawsuit successfully challenged the validity of data the county submitted to the State Tax Equalization Board.
“A trial court determined that Allegheny County’s methodology resulted in improperly increased property valuations. We pursued the lawful appeals process to ensure our properties were assessed accurately, fairly and consistently under the law,” Malkowski said.
“Something has to give.”
Dan Davis, West Mifflin Borough Council
Overall appeals countywide jumped 55% from 2021 to 2022. Overall industrial property appeals — the kind of properties making up much of U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley portfolio — more than tripled from 2021 to 2022, jumping from 50 appeals to 187.
Property owners are “playing with house money right now. They can’t lose,” Weiss said. “It’s like kicking a vending machine. You kick it and money comes out.”
Court decision hopes
Clairton and the Clairton City School District are losing out on a combined $383,000 per year in tax revenue from the Clairton Coke Works.
The company appealed assessments on seven properties in the city in 2024. Its Clairton holdings, including the Coke Works, lost $5.7 million in assessed value.
The difference between the pre-appeal assessed value of the Coke Works parcels and their 2026 value equates to nearly $104,000 in reduced revenue to Clairton and $280,000 to the district, according to Mickey McGlasson, a community data scientist at the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University, who used data from the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center.
Former Mayor Rich Lattanzi estimated that the city relies on the steelmaker for almost one-third of its tax base. Clairton Mayor James Cerqua, a former U.S. Steel foreman, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Clairton is one of three Allegheny County municipalities, along with Duquesne and McKeesport, that levy separate millage for land and building value. Using the current land and millage rate, Clairton would bring in almost $160,000 per year in real estate tax revenue from U.S. Steel’s holdings in the area. Clairton City School district would bring in around $441,000 per year. The district projects general revenues of nearly $22.7 million this year.
Clairton City School District serves around 800 students and is among the poorest districts in the county, with 85% of the district’s students characterized by the state as low income, compared to a state average of 47%. Nearly three-quarters of its 2024 revenue came from the state.
In September, the Pennsylvania Department of Education placed the district under a financial watch, a step which could lead to receivership, citing a “consistent decline” in tax collection and failure to file annual financial reports with the state.
Alexis Trubiani, Clairton City School District’s spokesperson, acknowledged but did not respond to a request for comment.
West Mifflin’s Davis said he hopes that an August Allegheny Court of Common Pleas ruling, which ordered the county to complete a full-scale reassessment by 2032, could provide some relief for the borough’s residential taxpayers.
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Dellecker, who works for Weiss’ firm, said the lawsuit they brought resulting in the court-ordered reassessment will bring “uniformity and fairness” to the property tax system. He estimated that one third of property owners’ taxes will go up, one third will go down and the other third will remain unchanged.
This “uniformity” will make tax revenues easier to predict for municipalities and school districts, who won’t have to anticipate large commercial property appeals that drain funds, he said.
Still, the court-ordered reassessment won’t fix all of the county’s reassessment woes. Dellecker said property owners could rush to reassess their properties after 2032, putting taxing bodies in the same place they are now.
U.S. Steel’s Malkowski said the company would review future assessments as they occur and any decisions regarding further appeals would depend on the “facts and circumstances at that time.”
“To keep continuing where we’re at, it’s a struggle,” Davis said. “It’s a balancing act.”
Lucas Dufalla is the Southern Communities Reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at lucas@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Rich Lord.
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