West Leechburg residents set to take assessment complaints to county courthouse

West Leechburg residents are preparing to take their complaints about property assessments directly to Westmoreland County commissioners.

After months, and in some cases years, of complaints about what residents say is an unfair property tax system, frustrations peaked this spring when Leechburg Area School District property taxes increased 10.4% in West Leechburg, while Leechburg and Gilpin property taxes decreased 2.9%.

The changes were not the work of the school district. Instead, state law required the changes to account for differing property assessments in Armstrong and Westmoreland counties.

At a town hall meeting last week, district Superintendent David Keibler suggested West Leechburg residents attend the next Westmoreland County commissioners’ meeting to air their complaints about the lack of timely reassessments and how it has contributed to a tax structure that residents deem unfair. He said he would arrange transportation for residents to attend.

“The (Westmoreland) commissioners’ public meeting is Thursday, Aug. 1,” Keibler said at the town hall meeting. “I will have a bus up here at eight o’clock.”

The school district has sign-up forms for residents to reserve a seat on the bus headed to Greensburg for the meeting.

The sign-up sheet for bus riders can be found on the school district’s website. Residents interested in speaking at the meeting can sign up ahead of time on the Westmoreland County commissioners’ website.

District officials say the tax discrepancy comes from an equalization formula provided by the State Tax Equalization Board. The formula attempts to raise or lower millage rates to balance the dollar amount residents living in different counties pay in taxes to their school districts.

The numbers are based on the property values from the most recent assessment and sales in the county each fiscal year. The formula is required for multicounty school districts to use when making their annual budgets.

During last week’s town hall meeting, Keibler said there is a 24-year difference in the values used in the equalization formula. The last time Westmoreland County properties were assessed was in 1973, and Armstrong County was last assessed in 1997. These value differences resulted in a $655 difference in tax bills between counties.

Keibler said Armstrong and Westmoreland commissioners were invited to the meeting to hear residents speak, but none showed. His solution was to take the complaints to them.

“I will work with our solicitor to have a letter,” Keibler said. “I think when we go in — every single one of us on that bus — sign up to speak, and we read the same exact statement to make a statement.”

The bus will depart at 8:30 a.m. from the West Leechburg Firemen’s Recreation Hall. Residents are asked to arrive early to have time to board the bus and make it to the Westmoreland County Courthouse in time for the 10 a.m. meeting.

“I think that’s a starting point to get your voices heard,” Keibler said. “I’ve heard enough over the last six months. I hear you. It’s time to act so this doesn’t continue.”