Assessment mess

So Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr., who has had his panties in a bunch for quite some time, has now decided to tell the county how to run its business concerning reassessments ("County Real Estate Review Ordered," Nov. 11). How legal is that?

Color me confused, but all of those county residents who complained their property values were higher than their neighbors' because they paid too much should have a) not bought the house in the first place if they felt they were paying too much, or b) filed an appeal with the property assessment board.

The "poor people" whom the judge thinks he's helping have always had that remedy. The system works the way it is. Maybe if the judge put his pay raise into advertising the fact that everyone can appeal their current valuation with our current system, he could sleep at night knowing that fairness was in place all along.

TOM TOMKINS

Bethel Park