Allegheny County – April 11, 2024 – Today, State Senator Wayne Fontana issued the following statement regarding the Pittsburgh Public Schools decision to sue Allegheny County to force a county-wide property tax reassessment:
Last month, I urged the Pittsburgh Board of Public Education to come to the table and work together with local- and state-level elected officials to produce a short-term solution to their budget problem while a long-term solution to our dysfunctional property tax system is developed that is fair and equitable.
Instead, the school board decided that their problem would now be everybody’s problem.
After an arbitrary two-week deadline devised by the board’s solicitor for the county executive to solve a generational and multi-layered problem passed, the school board has filed suit.
Instead of making tough decisions on its own budget or taking any personal political risk by raising its mileage rate, the school board decided to “pass the buck” and drag Allegheny County’s other 42 school districts and 130 municipalities through a court-mandated property reassessment process that will cost the county millions of dollars and take years to complete.
I will continue to work on an actual solution to this serious problem and am happy to include any elected official willing to do the hard work towards a fair and equitable outcome.
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