On October 20, 2014, our school board will be voting to approve tax refunds for 70 Mt. Lebanon taxpayers.
Lebo Citizens reader and former manager of Allegheny County’s Office of Property Assessments, Mike Suley wrote this opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Allegheny Co. tax appeal deadlines are unfair
List of Tax Refunds
– The list of tax refunds totals $80,364.27 for 70 refunds. The list has been reviewed by the solicitor’s office and is recommended for approval. The Superintendent recommends approval of this list.
Lebo Citizens reader and former manager of Allegheny County’s Office of Property Assessments, Mike Suley wrote this opinion piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Allegheny Co. tax appeal deadlines are unfair
No other county in Pennsylvania forces you to pay taxes before your tax assessment appeal is resolved
October 14, 2014 12:00 AM
Allegheny County is the only county in Pennsylvania that forces you to pay taxes before your tax assessment appeal is resolved. For example, the appeal deadline in Allegheny County is March 31, 2015, for the 2015 tax year, yet 2015 county, Pittsburgh and city school district bills will be mailed out before the appeals deadline. It’s not fair to pay first and appeal later. There are city residents still waiting on retroactive appeal decisions for this tax year.
Under home rule, the appeal deadline has been changed at least 20 times. In 2013 the county changed the deadline again to give property owners and taxing bodies a “second chance” to appeal for the same tax year because a prior county ordinance permitted appeals before the tax bills went out. This was done even though tens of thousands of the previous appeals were unresolved and awaiting disposition going into the 2013 tax year.
Allegheny County politicians have complained for years that the county’s citizens should be on a level playing field with other counties. We’re not. It’s time to have an appeals deadline with resolution before the tax bills go out.
MIKE SULEY
Mt. Lebanon
The writer, an assessment consultant, is former manager of Allegheny County’s Office of Property Assessments.
Allegheny County is the only county in Pennsylvania that forces you to pay taxes before your tax assessment appeal is resolved. For example, the appeal deadline in Allegheny County is March 31, 2015, for the 2015 tax year, yet 2015 county, Pittsburgh and city school district bills will be mailed out before the appeals deadline. It’s not fair to pay first and appeal later. There are city residents still waiting on retroactive appeal decisions for this tax year.
Under home rule, the appeal deadline has been changed at least 20 times. In 2013 the county changed the deadline again to give property owners and taxing bodies a “second chance” to appeal for the same tax year because a prior county ordinance permitted appeals before the tax bills went out. This was done even though tens of thousands of the previous appeals were unresolved and awaiting disposition going into the 2013 tax year.
Allegheny County politicians have complained for years that the county’s citizens should be on a level playing field with other counties. We’re not. It’s time to have an appeals deadline with resolution before the tax bills go out.
MIKE SULEY
Mt. Lebanon
The writer, an assessment consultant, is former manager of Allegheny County’s Office of Property Assessments.
