Category: default || By jt3y

In case you missed it, Chris Briem of Null Space has apologized for what he calls his "superficial mischaracterization of the fine City of McKeesport." As only a humble chronicler of various minutia, I cannot officially accept apologies on behalf of anyone, but I'm happy to pass it along.

And since yesterday was the 63rd anniversary of D-Day, it's worthwhile to remember these stirring words:



. . .

Amessment: Speaking of Null Space, make sure to read Briem's comments on the assessment mess.

As he points out, Allegheny County's base year system is just as screwed up as the systems in neighboring counties, some of which haven't re-assessed their properties since the 1980s.

Do you think it's fair that the new McMansions going up in Hempfield and North Huntingdon are being assessed at 1973 values? I don't either.

Properties should be assessed every year or two based on their fair-market values. Period. Some people will see their taxes go up; some will see their taxes go down. (In the interest of full disclosure: Mine would go up.)

People can rant about "fairness," but there is no way that a "base-year system" --- freezing tax assessments at some arbitrary year in the past --- is "fair." It's inherently unfair, and that's what Judge R. Stanton Wettick pointed out this week by saying it's unconstitutional.

I hope Allegheny County does appeal this decision to the state Supreme Court, and I hope they do overturn base-year systems, so that all of the counties in the metropolitan area are forced to compete on a level playing field in terms of property taxation. There is no way that the Mon-Yough area can compete for development with places like Cranberry Township as long as Butler County is still valuing properties at their 1969 levels, for crying out loud.

In the meantime, I am formally coining a new word to describe the property tax valuation system in Pennsylvania:

A•mess•ment (ə-mĕs'mənt) (n.) (c. 2007): The act of screwing up the evaluation of the taxable worth of property by politicians who are trying to placate voters instead of using the fair-market value of homes and businesses. I wish I knew what my school taxes were going to be next year, but I can't make out a budget because of the amessment.

. . .

Anyway: Someday soon I'm going to write a bit about metropolitanism and how State Senator W.D. Mansfield, publisher of the Daily News, almost single-handedly wrecked metropolitan government in Pennsylvania. I need to do a bit more research.

You'll notice that Pittsburgh stretches through West Mifflin almost to the border of McKeesport. Pittsburgh at one time was trying to annex McKeesport just as it annexed Allegheny City and was gobbling pieces of (then) Mifflin Township to make it happen. Mansfield vowed to stop it at all costs.

I don't know if Our Fair City would be better or worse off as part of Pittsburgh, but I do know that having a dozen municipalities around McKeesport instead of one or two, and 130 in the county instead of maybe a dozen, is wasteful and inefficient.

It seems to me that reducing all of the different communities in Allegheny County to the city of Pittsburgh, a few third-class cities, and a couple of townships would make a lot of sense. I doubt I will see it in my lifetime, unfortunately.

. . .

Valley Hotel P.S.: I deleted the entry on the Valley Hotel --- apparently the photos that were sent to me weren't "long, lost, mysterious" pictures, but were snapped at the Valley Hotel itself, which has a whole wall of vintage pictures on display!

Until I get permission to put them back up (probably in Tube City Online's "History" section) from the hotel's owners, I've pulled them. And go have a fish sandwich at the Valley Hotel or something --- it's brain food. You don't meet many dumb cats, do you?