The subject of the lawsuit is the state’s property assessment system.
Mon Valley Unemployed Committee, Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Governor Josh Shapiro and Attorney General Dave Sunday.
The lawsuit argues that the current property assessment system violates the Pennsylvania state constitution.
Mon Valley Unemployed is a nonprofit with about 450 members. Its members include low-income homeowners “whose homes are systematically over-assessed due to the use of the frozen base-year assessment scheme in their counties” in Western Pennsylvania, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit aims for Shapiro and Sunday to issue an injunction that would require counties statewide to conduct reassessments. It argues that the current environment is inequitable and unfair for many homeowners.
The Community Justice Project is representing Mon Valley Unemployed in the case, which is currently in the state’s Commonwealth Court.
Kevin Quisenberry, litigation director for the Community Justice Project, said that about 70% of counties across the state have unfair and regressive assessments. He argued that this system of homeowners with lower-value property being overtaxed violates the state’s constitution.
“Freezing assessments under the base year scheme, which allows appreciation since the base year to escape taxation, forces taxing bodies to increase their mills to keep up with the rising costs of government,” he said.
Last year, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and County Council raised taxes to keep up with the costs of service. Multiple lawsuits have since been filed in local courts to attempt to force Allegheny County to conduct a reassessment.
Innamorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey have said the state legislature needs to pass legislation requiring reassessments for them to take place. Additional homeowners have sued Allegheny County in an effort to correct what they deem to be an unfair system.
State Senator Wayne Fontana has led efforts that would require such assessments to be conducted regularly across counties in the state, but those efforts have not yet been successful.
