Assessments and Regressive Property Taxes - Open Letter

The following is an open letter to Dave Brumfield from Lebo Citizens reader and Mt. Lebanon resident, Steve Diaz.

Dave: I write this open letter to you this morning after reading about the hearing on Tuesday about property tax assessment appeals taken against residents by the municipality. This is a matter of justice, fairness, and just doing the right thing.

First, I notice that you are quoted in the paper as saying that the more recent the sale of a home, the closer to sales price the assessment should be. This is an opaque comment, but reveals a serious flaw. If, as you are reported as having said, the difference in assessments is in the six figure range for homes recent sold over those with longer-term residents, then you must admit that the system is inherently unfair and unreasonable. For example, how long have you lived in your home? Would you volunteer to file an appeal of your own assessment to see it raised to its current "market value"? Do you think that if you sold your home it would be reasonable for the buyer to pay taxes on an assessment that is six figures higher than that on which you are paying? Or, put another way, is it fair for you not to pay property taxes on the same current "market value" that you would expect any buyer of your home to pay? You see it is a case of whose ox gets gored: so long as you can live with an outdated low (hence unfair) valuation, you don't care if someone else is taxed on an unjust higher basis than you are. I recently asked you if you would file an appeal to raise your own taxes, and your response was "Why would I do that?" Well, I agree that none of us wants our assessment increased -- and it is not reasonable of you to insist that some pay based of "market value" (meaning sales price) and some on another basis (by the way, "sales price" is not the standard, as you know -- even though "sales price" is the basis for assessment that the municipality argues in the property assessment appeals it files against its citizens). If market value is to be the measure, why should you not pay property taxes based on a current market value assessment like any new buyer? You see, this is one way in which the local governments (the municipality and the school district) enforce inequality and unfairness in order to support their profligate and excessive spending, without feeling the pinch themselves personally. This is a case of moral and ethical callousness towards your fellow citizens that is unworthy of a public official; you are a lawyer, are you not concerned with Equal Protection of the Law?

Second, property taxes are, in their nature, regressive. As you know, property taxes are a holdover from the Middle Ages when such taxes were imposed on the premise that the ownership of land implied income (or ability to pay), predicated on the agricultural nature of European society hundreds of years ago. Today, it is simply ridiculous to assume that living in a home is any measure of "ability to pay." We receive no rents from tenant farmers, or from our own farming (even if we can legally keep half a dozen chickens in Mt. Lebanon). Moreover, many of our residents are seniors living on fixed incomes. There is no reason for "ability to pay" taxes -- such as sales taxes (which are used for the purpose in Europe today), or income taxes (which reflect actual cash flow) should not replace property taxes entirely for single family residential property. Yet, I hear no clammer for such reform from municipal hall.

Third, the school district is in deficit because of its own excessive spending (which you are known to support). The municipality is not far behind. To rectify such spending errors, public entities should be forced to go into bankruptcy, as individuals who incur debts they cannot repay must do --- not drive the local citizens into individual bankruptcy or foreclosure because we cannot afford the overspending of undisciplined public officials who seek to spend other people's money too freely, or to buy reelection by pandering to political "wants" in excess of the means of the community.

I appeal to your own sense of fairness and common sense -- stop the abuse of municipal appeals of assessments on home resale, unless you are prepared to live by the same measure of taxable equity as everyone else.

Respectfully. Steve.

PS. I note that your public posture and your private assurances to citizens are not always the same -- why? SD

Steven A. Diaz
Mt. Lebanon Resident and Taxpayer.