Why didn’t even more owners appeal in a county with some 580,000 properties? “What that tells me,” Suley said, “is that the property owners still don’t know how to do the math” to determine whether they can save money via appeal.

“The pendulum is swinging the other way.” The fact that 44% of appeals were filed by property owners represents “a dramatic shift in the breakdown from last year,” said Michael Suley, former manager of the county’s Office of Property Assessments and a consultant to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. For school districts, he said, an appeal is now “like picking up a container of nitroglycerin and not knowing if it is going to blow up.” Whereas appeals under the prior ratio often brought increased revenue to districts, now they could instead “knock 30% off of the value” used to determine the tax bill, according to Weiss.

From slots to mills, big property owners aim for smaller property tax bills.

Steel has helped his government and he believes the company doesn’t want to hurt the home of its coke works. The revenue loss could “be catastrophic for the City of Clairton,” he said, adding that U.S. To have all of that under appeal is “huge for us,” Lattanzi said. The Mon Valley city relies on the steelmaker for almost one-third of its total tax base, according to Mayor Rich Lattanzi. The steelmaker has filed the most appeals of any property owner in the county, covering property assessed at around $58.5 million.Ĭlairton is home to 32 of the U.S.

Steel, for instance, is appealing the tax bills on 95 properties, virtually everything it owns in Allegheny County. And many sophisticated property owners are doing just that. About Unbalanced: This year, PublicSource is exploring the effects of property taxes on people and communities a decade after Allegheny County’s last reassessment.ĭriving the change in the mix is a judge’s decision in a taxpayer lawsuit that tilted the tax math in favor of property owners - but only if they appeal.

Rivers casino pittsburgh lawsuit