New board appointed to hear Westmoreland property assessment appeals

A new three-member board will begin hearing Westmoreland County property assessment appeals.

The county commissioners on Thursday reappointed Barbara Moffe along with newcomers Camdon Porterfield and Dan Galbraith to the board that will conduct hearings to determine whether assessments of the county’s 191,000-plus parcels are accurate.

The appeals board conducted 986 hearings in 2019, a number that officials said was among the lowest in recent years. Chief assessor William Ferraro said the number of appeals has trended down after topping out at more than 1,200 cases a decade ago.

Commissioners have relied on the work of the appeals board in lieu of authorizing a countywide property revaluation, a project they have resisted, in part, because of cost. Officials said a reassessment could cost as much as $12 million while not significantly increasing the tax dollars it would bring in by assigning new values to properties.

Officials said the low number of appeals makes a reassessment unnecessary.

“Only about 1% of assessments are appealed,” Commissioner Gina Cerilli said. “I am in no way in favor of doing a reassessment.”

The county’s assessment system is among the oldest in the state. It is based on cost of construction values from 1972.

Current assessments, which are used to calculate tax bills, represent 14.4% of a property’s market value, Ferraro said.

Assessment appeals board members earn $100 for each day of work. Last year, the board convened for 65 days of hearings, Ferraro said.

Moffe, 64, of Greensburg was reappointed to the appeals board by Cerilli.

Porterfield, 28, of Greensburg, the son of former state Sen. Eugene Porterfield, works as a public relations administrator for his family-owned property assessment firm, Evaluator Services and Technology Inc. He was selected for the board post by Republican Commissioner Sean Kertes.

Commissioner Doug Chew, a Republican, appointed Galbraith, 55, a small business owner in Hempfield.

Property assessment appeals for the 2021 tax year can be filed starting July 1. Hearings are expected to be completed by Oct. 31.