Leechburg Area pitches fix for taxing inequality

Leechburg Area School District residents may be seeing balanced property tax bills as early as next school year.

District Business Manager Jake Chapla presented a method to balance property taxes between the district’s Armstrong County and Westmoreland County residents after years of uneven taxation.

There are multiple calculation methods provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Consolidated Financial Reporting System, Chapla said Wednesday night.

The method he selected allows the district to calculate a uniform assessed value and market value across Armstrong and Westmoreland counties.

The tax inequity for West Leechburg, being the school district’s only Westmoreland County community, comes from the state-mandated tax equalization ratio. That ratio is a formula required for school districts that cross county lines to make sure parts of the districts in different counties pay a proportional amount of taxes.

It’s needed because property tax assessments are not uniform and can vary greatly by county.

In Leechburg Area’s case, rather than producing equal tax bills in Gilpin, Leechburg and West Leechburg, it has produced consistent increases in West Leechburg.

Millage changes come from applying the tax equalization ratio to properties in each community. Since Armstrong and Westmoreland counties held their last countywide reassessments decades apart, one mill in one county is worth a vastly different amount in the other. The state tax equalization ratio is supposed to level that value out.

The current millage rate is set at 158.91 mills for West Leechburg, resulting in a homeowner with a median assessed property value of $18,200 paying $2,892.

For Leechburg and Gilpin, the tax rate is 69.65 mills, resulting in a homeowner with a median assessed property value of $32,600 paying $2,270.

The previous method used by the district uses county-supplied assessed values “as-is,” so Armstrong’s tax base is heavily understated compared to Westmoreland’s. That has resulted in Armstrong residents paying a much lower tax rate on the same property market value. Westmoreland assesses properties at 100% of the market value while Armstrong assess them at 50% due to the difference in their last reassessment years.

Board President Ashley Coudriet said there’s been a consistent difference of around $350 over the years.

Comparing the current method with the proposed method, Chapla said there’s a $443 difference within the total collection of the budget. He said while millage will increase for Armstrong County residents, they won’t be crushed with an extremely increased tax bill since the formula is operating off of a new, lower assessed value.

“A drop in total assessed value will see an increase in millage,” Chapla said.

Using the 2025-26 school year as an example, Chapla calculated a mock tax bill using the proposed method. He divided the Armstrong assessed value by the product of the county’s common level ratio, multiplied by the predetermined ratio to get the uniform assessed value. To get the uniform market value, he multiplied that value by Westmoreland’s common level ratio.

Owners of homes in both counties valued at $100,000 paying 128.35 mill had an equal tax bill of $1,139.75.

Looking forward

Coudriet said herself, Keibler and board member Tom Maxin have taken a hands-on approach with solving the issue by visiting county offices, lawmakers in Harrisburg and hosting town halls. She also thanked board members Jimmy Feudale, Joseph Lepish and Anthony Townsend for their support during the process.

“I’m proud to say our persistence paid off,” she said. “The Leechburg Area School District finally achieved a permanent solution to the STEB problem.”

She accused another elected official in Leechburg Borough, Chuck Pascal, for not assisting the cause, “but instead (chose) to publicly disparage and attack the very people working to restore fairness.”

Pascal declined to comment about the comment.

“I don’t attack people in public forums,” he said.

Chapla said next steps depends on the school board’s approval of the method’s use.

After the approval, the district will obtain the market values and assessed values of each taxable parcel in the counties from each county assessment office. The calculation will be done by the district.

“Your county assessment for Armstrong will be different than the school assessment due to the A-2 method,” Chapla said.

The calculations will be turned in to the counties for their approval. Chapla said he and administrators have been working with the state Education Department during this process.

Superintendent David Keibler said the district is planning ahead for needed projects within the district. The district has not raised taxes in eight years causing them to hold off any major improvement projects that didn’t have grant funding available.

“There’s no way we can continue in the district without being able to put some sort of tax increase into the budget,” Keibler said.