Letter to the editor: A newcomer tax scheme

Trust but verify. The Russian proverb comes to mind when homeowners sue the county on a newcomer tax issue. The county will have to prove in court that it knows more about the real estate market than Realtors, buyers and sellers of real property.

Allegheny County claims it assesses property at 100% of market value. Not true. If you bought a home last year and were appealed by a school district, the county says that you’ll be assessed at 87.5% of the sales price this year. How did the county arrive at this percentage?

In 2012, all county assessors assessed all properties at 92% of value. In appeals this year … appealed assessments show a slight cumulative 4.5% appreciation rate since 2012 by applying an 87.5% factor. That’s it! That’s much less that 1% a year. Are you kidding me? Some appraisal professionals say appreciation rates are 10 times that. If true, new homeowners are paying much more than their fair share in taxes with this back-door tax increase.

What does this mean? New homeowners are targeted by taxing bodies with an artificially high tax bill after appeal. One possible solution? The judge could appoint an independent private sector auditor to look at the state certified assessors’ work product to see if the sales coding is correct. There’s a lot riding on these figures.

My money is on the plaintiffs in this complaint.

Mike Suley

Scott