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An aerial view of Lawrenceville, Another lawsuit has been filed to force a property reassessment in Allegheny County, with both saying county officials are using an "outdated" system.
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‘Not uniform’: Churchill property owner files lawsuit to force countywide reassessment

Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette

‘Not uniform’: Churchill property owner files lawsuit to force countywide reassessment

Another lawsuit has been filed to force a property reassessment in Allegheny County.

Churchill homeowner Flavia E. Laun charged in the complaint filed Wednesday in Common Pleas Court that she is paying substantially more than her fair share in real estate taxes because of a county-run assessment system she described as “outdated, discriminatory, and non-uniform.”

Named as defendants in the 25-page filing are Allegheny County, Executive Sara Innamorato, and chief assessment officer Lou Fabian.

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Ms. Laun’s lawsuit is the second seeking to force the county to reassess its property for the first time since 2012. In April, the Pittsburgh School District also sued, claiming that the county’s base-year system implemented after the last reassessment is plagued with inequities.

Mount Washington and Downtown, photographed on Monday, April 27, 2020. In an ongoing court case, Pittsburgh Schools told visiting senior Judge Kenneth Valasek that tax increases are “not a viable long-term solution” to fix an Allegheny County assessment system that it describes as “broken and inequitable.”
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Both Ms. Laun and the district are being represented by attorney Ira Weiss and his law firm, Weiss Burkardt Kramer. Mr. Weiss also was the attorney in the lawsuit filed by a property owner that resulted in the 2012 court-ordered reassessment.

Mr. Weiss said Wednesday that Ms. Laun had reached out to his firm to initiate the litigation because she was concerned about her situation.

“She’s a property owner who is very firm in her belief that she has been victimized” by the county’s current assessment system.

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According to the lawsuit, Ms. Laun decided to take action after the Woodland Hills School District in 2022 appealed the $114,500 assessment on her home, one she had purchased for $225,000 the year before.

The county’s Board of Property Assessment Appeals and Review increased the assessment to $142,900 in June 2022, the lawsuit stated. Ms. Laun subsequently filed an appeal for the 2024 tax year to try to lower the taxable value but the appeals board ended up keeping it at $142,900.

That assessment, the complaint charged, “is excessive, discriminatory, and not consistent with her neighbors on Williamsburg Place due to Allegheny’s outdated and illegal 2012 base year system.”

Of the 66 residences on her street, the assessments ranged from zero to $214,100, with the average being $120,994.

The Pittsburgh Public Schools is blasting an attempt by Allegheny County and Executive Sara Innamorato to quash its lawsuit seeking to force a property reassessment.
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“This extreme variance in assessed values highlights the egregious disparities that exist between similarly situated homeowners living on the same street,” the lawsuit stated.

It also alleged that Ms. Laun’s assessment is well above the street average even though her home is “similar in value or comparatively inferior to several neighboring properties with lower assessments.”

The complaint also alleges that there are a “significant number of properties within her taxing jurisdiction which have higher current fair market values than her home but substantially lower assessments.”

“Plaintiff believes, and therefore avers, that the county’s 2012 base year system does not accurately reflect market fluctuations that have occurred over the past 13 years, resulting in mass, systematic, non-uniform assessments throughout the entire county.”

The lawsuit, which described Ms. Laun as a senior citizen on a fixed income, also took aim at Ms. Innamorato’s decision to increase county property taxes by 36% to 6.43 mills.

“Rather than requiring under-assessed property owners to pay their fair share, Defendant Sara Innamorato has simply chosen to shift their tax liability over to everyone else in the form of higher taxes. This unfairly and unreasonably places a higher burden on homeowners in economically depressed communities who have not seen their properties appreciate at the same as those in more affluent communities,” it stated.

It also argued that there is no reason Ms. Laun should have to “pay significantly more in annual real estate taxes than under-assessed homeowners in her tax jurisdiction with similar or comparatively better properties.”

“This discriminatory treatment toward plaintiff is a clear result of Allegheny County’s woefully outdated assessment system, and indicative of a much larger, systemic problem that can only be addressed through an equitable redistribution of the overall tax burden.”

The lawsuit alleges that the county’s current system violates the uniformity clause of the state constitution and the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Properties that have higher fair market values but substantially lower assessments than Ms. Laun’s property “are receiving preferential treatment from the county” in violation of the uniformity clause, it stated.

“As a result, plaintiff and homeowners like her with fair or excessive assessments are being forced to shoulder more than their fair share of the overall tax base.”

A county spokeswoman did not return an email seeking comment.

Mr. Weiss said he did not see any conflict in representing a property owner and a school district in separate lawsuits seeking a reassessment because they both make the same claims.

“The fundamental problem is the same: The system is not uniform. This is the relief that will solve that,” he said.

The school district’s lawsuit has been tied up in Common Pleas Court since spring. The county has argued that the district, as a taxing body, doesn’t have legal standing to bring a lawsuit challenging the uniformity of valuations.

It has also asserted that the district can simply raise taxes to fund any shortfalls caused by plummeting property values resulting from assessment appeals, including those involving some of Downtown’s priciest real estate.

During a hearing in September, visiting senior Judge Kenneth Valasek of Armstrong County also asked whether the state constitution’s uniformity clause was designed mainly to protect taxpayers.

While Mr. Weiss stressed that he believes the school district definitely has standing to file its lawsuit, he added that Ms. Laun’s complaint effectively takes away that argument from the county.

It will now have to “face the reality” of the “constitutional shortcomings of its system,” he said.

The lawsuit also charged that a steep drop in the common level ratio — the number used to set taxable value in appeal hearings — has caused a “dramatic, retroactive erosion of the commercial tax base” and shifted the overall tax burden to residential property owners.

“Plaintiff cannot obtain relief through any means other than a countywide reassessment. A revenue neutral, countywide reassessment will equitably redistribute the tax burden so that everyone pays their fair share of the cost of government in accordance with the Pennsylvania Constitution’s uniformity clause,” it stated.

First Published: January 29, 2025, 11:25 p.m.
Updated: January 30, 2025, 6:31 p.m.

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An aerial view of Lawrenceville, Another lawsuit has been filed to force a property reassessment in Allegheny County, with both saying county officials are using an "outdated" system.  (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette
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