Most are satisfied

Regarding new assessments in Allegheny County and the lack of good sense on all sides: Other counties are living, in peace, with much older assessments. Meanwhile, 97 percent of the people in Allegheny County are happy with their assessments.

Isn't there a way to satisfy the other 3 percent without some expensive, burdensome, pain-in-the-neck, new assessment? If you take your car to the shop and you have a brake problem, you get the brakes fixed. You're not told to build a whole new car.

Do those who have challenged the county's system really want a new assessment that they hope will put thousands and thousands of people under the gun to fight or accept those assessments? Is it an attempt to embarrass Mr. Onorato? Is the unwillingness of the Republican Senate to correct this an attempt to embarrass Mr. Onorato? Are we being stuck with this mess because of politics?

I blame Mr. Onorato as much for not allowing any appeals under his particular base-year assessment. How would the court have ruled if there was no basis for individual complaints? Meanwhile Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. seeks "uniformity" in districts at a time, leaving a lack of conformity within the county and throughout the state. In Pennsylvania one needs to wonder where conformity begins and ends. It looks like something the politicians and courts can be very selective about, depending on the politics. People who simply want a new assessment should have been denied while so many other counties have such older assessments.

 

NORMAN AUGUSTINE
Arlington