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Property values for areas in east Allegheny County will be mailed out starting Wednesday, January 27. They will include Monroeville and some communities in the Mon Valley. This comes despite last week's court order that use of the reassessments for tax purposes be delayed for a year. The reassessment process is ongoing, and County Solicitor Mike Wojcik said officials are trying to iron out the details for informal appeals.
"The county's position is that the informal appeals are integral to this process. They'll help the numbers be much more accurate. I think we saw what happened when the city's numbers went out without informal appeals," said Wojcik.
At a status conference before Judge R. Stanton Wettick on Thursday, officials said the county has gotten about 8,000 requests for formal appeal hearings from people unhappy with their reassessments. Pittsburgh and Mt. Oliver values went out in late December. Property owners have until February 24 to file for an informal appeal and April 2 for a formal appeal.
Though no decision was made at the update hearing, Judge Wettick did say that property owners who would see tax increases under their new assessments would be given top priority in the appeals process. While the county continues to comply with the process, Solicitor Wojcik said the fight is also ongoing.
"The judge has taken over the process. He's made an order effectively removing the chief executive from the process of the assessment, but the chief executive is continuing to fight politically, public relations-wise, you name it — every front that he has," said Wojcik.
Reassessment values for other areas in the county will be released at the end of February and the beginning of March.
