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HARRISBURG – Opponents of two bills that would ban spot reassessments in most counties are applauding Gov. Ed Rendell’s veto of the bills on Monday.
But one of the sponsors on Wednesday warned of a possible attempt at a veto override.
The Legislature on July 4 passed House Bill 1438 and Senate Bill 1247, which would stop school districts from filing reverse assessment appeals on recently sold homes. It also protected new homeowners from having their assessed values – and their taxes – increased while neighbors with similar homes continue paying lower taxes.
But the bills also would ban reverse appeals on commercial properties that might be grossly undertaxed, causing the rest of the taxpayers in a district to pay higher taxes than necessary.
In a written statement, Rendell said he vetoed the bills because the legislative process did not afford “adequate time to craft legislation that would both protect new property owners from (spot re-assessment) and … ensure that all homeowners carry their fair share of the local property tax burden in the absence of county-wide reassessment.”
Rendell urged sponsors of the bills to work over the summer “to resolve these two legitimate competing interests and find a compromise (to ensure) the appropriate sharing of the … property tax burden among all property owners.” He also said the Legislature should “start to tackle the long-term solution to this problem – the passage of legislation that would compel regular assessments at the county level.”
State Rep. Tim Seip, D-Pottsville, who sponsored HB 1438, said he was surprised at the vetoes, given their strong support in the House and Senate.
“I will pursue every legislative avenue I have available to me to try to eradicate the spot appeal process from our Commonwealth. The override would be one of those avenues,” Seip said.
“I understand there are tremendous burdens on school districts, but to single out individual taxpayers and try to pilfer money from them to fund public (education) is very short-sighted and very wrong,” he said.
Sen. James Rhoades, R-Mahanoy City, who sponsored SB 1247, did not return a message.
Wilkes-Barre Area School District assistant solicitor Ray Wendolowski said he thinks many legislators who voted for the bills didn’t realize their negative impact on most taxpayers. He said the district would have lost several million dollars in commercial property taxes had the bills been in effect a few years ago.
State Sen. John Gordner, R-Berwick, said he voted for SB 1247 before he became aware of the negative impact of the legislation. He voted against HB 1438.
All other local legislators voted for both bills.