Lessons learned - not an April Fools joke

Yesterday was the deadline to appeal reassessments. We have all learned quite a bit about the process. I decided to make a list of what I have learned.

• If you want to add value to your house, add a roof to your front porch. Spending $50,000 to update your kitchen and having the Post Gazette write about it, is not investing wisely.
• If you have lakefront property in Mt. Lebanon, your house will go down in value.
• If you support a commissioner's dream and present it at a Commission Discussion Session, you will reduce the value of your home to below 1988 prices.
• If you are related to any highly paid municipal staff, your home already assessed at $40,000 less than the 2004 purchase price, will be reassessed an additional $113,400 less. 
• If you are a commissioner, the value of your home may be significantly less than your neighbor's. This may also hold true if you are a school board director, past or present.
• You can work for Diversified Municipal Services and still be on the Community Relations Board and be a member of the ad hoc committee to change our municipal constitution, the Home Rule Charter.
• On a square foot basis, the larger the home, the less your home is worth. Invest in small houses. In the low rent district.
• If you are a school district finance director, move out of Mt. Lebanon to avoid the taxes.
• Real estate agents work for the seller, not the buyer.
• Take advantage of the Homestead Exclusion.
• Pay attention to deadlines.
• Start attending commission meetings and school board meetings.

Town Hall Invitation from County Commissioner Gastgeb

As I only see this on Josephine Posti's blog and not announced on the School District website, I thought I would share this with the community.


From Josephine Posti's Center Court blog:
Commissioner Vince Gasteb recently sent this notice to school directors in his district for us to share with our communities:

The notices containing the 2013 court-ordered reassessment values are scheduled to be mailed to the communities which I represent the week of Monday, February 20, 2012. As such, I would like to invite you to a Town Hall Meeting which I am hosting in conjunction with the Chief Executive’s Office. This will be an opportunity for the residents of the Municipality of Bethel Park, the Municipality of Mt. Lebanon, the Borough of McDonald (5th District), South Fayette Township, and Upper St. Clair Township, to receive information concerning the property reassessment matter. This meeting is intended to be an educational one and it will allow participants to ask questions about the reassessment process, including appeal procedures.

Date: Thursday, March 8, 2012

Time: 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Location: Bethel Park High School Auditorium

309 Church Road

Bethel Park, PA 15102

Want to see something incredible?

Over on Blog-Lebo, Tom Moertel created an interactive Google map of Mt. Lebanon's reassessments. Making Sense of the New Assessments: Winners and Losers This is incredible, folks. Tom incorporated the Mt. Lebanon reassessment figures with Google Maps to estimate who dodged the bullet and who will be faced with higher taxes.  Well done, Tom!

It is hitting the fan.

The reassessments have been posted.
 http://www2.alleghenycounty.us/reval/Search.aspx This is for the 2013 tax year.

If you are mathematically challenged like me, here is a percentage calculator.

Reassessment will hurt people already hurting

I saw this letter to the editor in today's PG and remember an English teacher at Mt. Lebanon with the same name.

Reassessment will hurt people already hurting

I cannot believe Judge R. Stanton Wettick's wanting this reassessment or the people writing in to say it is correct. Are they not aware of the pages of sheriff's sales in the Post-Gazette every week, or the astronomical pharmaceutical bills many are trying to pay?

Do they not hear our churches pleading for donations for the needy? Do they know that oranges are now $1 each?

Along with county taxes, we have these boroughs and townships building schools and extensions that resemble Parthenons. They go into the high millions. For instance, in the 1940s and '50s a small Mt. Lebanon high school housed two or three times as many students as today's enrollment, but now we need an extension to the school, although 46 years ago there was an extension. I realize more things may be needed in the schools now, and I do not want to take anything away that the students need, but these things are raising taxes.

Some seniors may have paid their homes off but are now living on Social Security. These huge reassessments and taxes could mean losing the homes they worked to pay off. It is all right for some to agree with the assessments because they are not hurting.

Anway, I have not yet found the answer to why Judge Wettick decides the assessments. As Anna's king of Siam would say, "It's a puzzlement."

JEAN PIROTH
Mt. Lebanon


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12031/1207023-110-0.stm#ixzz1l4fh90lG