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We typically represent our political parties either with an elephant or a donkey.
But in the case of Pennsylvania lawmakers at the state and local level, the ostrich would be a better representation. No one wants to take on the issue of property reassessments because they don't want to upset voters. The problem is property reassessments are a necessary pain in the tuckus that make sure our system of taxation to pay for public services is done in as fair a way as possible.
One reason property reassessments cause ostrich-like behavior now is they happen decades apart in too many counties. Going so long causes massive property value swings for thousands of county residents everywhere in the state. One way to make the process less controversial and painful is to do it more regularly. That is the exact reason why most states require cyclical property reassessments. Other states have realized it's better to stay ahead of the lion than to bury their head in the sand and get bitten in the butt.
For decades state lawmakers have chosen not to join every other state by requiring regular property tax reassessments. And because the state doesn't require them on a regular basis, local governments often go decades between property reassessments. This has largely been true in both urban areas like Allegheny County and rural areas like Warren County.
Warren County officials took their head out of the sand in 2022 and started a process that, while unpopular to many in the county, was necessary to begin restoring tax fairness. Allegheny County had to have its head forcibly removed from the sand recently by a state court judge who ordered the county to undertake its first reassessment since 2012.
It's time, in our opinion, for Republicans and Democrats to get their heads out of the sand, too, by passing legislation that requires regular property reassessments. Sen. Wayne Fontana, D-Allegheny, has introduced legislation (SB 567) that would do just that. Predictably, it hasn't attracted much support from Democrats and hasn't moved an inch in the year the bill has sat assigned to a Senate Committee. House Reps. Emily Kinkead and Jen Mazzocco plan to introduce a similar bill in the state House of Representatives, where we have a feeling it will likely be buried in sand – just like the heads of too many state lawmakers.