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From: Sen. Costa
Date: 5/8/2002
Time: 10:26:24 AM
Remote Name: 172.23.141.86
Years and years of the failure of the county to property address the issue of assessments resulted in significant inequities with some people paying more than their fair share and some people paying less. The issue ultimately ended up in court where a judge ordered that the court undertake an extensive reassessment for all homes in Allegheny County, to get them essentially to their fair market assessment. The controversy is that Sabre Systems, the company charged with conducting the assessment, did a poor job in accurately assessing the value of homes. This resulted in nearly 100,000 homes being over-assessed. Homeowners rightfully felt that they were being taxed too much and appealed the assessments. The general belief by many homeowners is that their taxes are too high, and they are unable to pay the significant increase as a result of reassessment. I have introduced legislation with Sen. Wagner that would roll back assessments to the 1998 levels in order to level the playing field and make assessments more equitable.