Leechburg Area School District officials are back to square one in their search for a solution to rising property tax rates in West Leechburg.

For almost eight months, district officials have been looking for a solution to the tax rates produced by a State Tax Equalization Board formula. The goal, Superintendent David Keibler said, is to have a solution and make the appropriate changes to lower the property tax for West Leechburg by next school year.

Keibler said he and other district officials met with Ben Hanft, deputy director of financial operations for the state Department of Education, to find the cause of the uneven property tax bills between West Leechburg, which is in Westmoreland County, and the district’s Armstrong County municipalities, Gilpin and Leechburg.

Keibler said the meeting was held for Hanft to get a firsthand look at how the STEB formula is creating such a large difference between tax rates.

Contacted by the Trib, Hanft directed questions to Education Department press secretary Erin James, who released a joint statement from the Education Department and the Department of Community and Economic Development.

The statement said, in part, that while Hanft’s bureau can offer guidance to school districts, it’s up to any school district to decide taxation issues.

One of the issues the discussion found is the way property values are being reported between counties to make the tax bill for the year.

“Westmoreland County is using 100% of assessed value (of properties) and Armstrong (County) is using 50%,” Keibler said. “It’s starting to throw the numbers off when the STEB calculations go in.”

The difference in assessment value ratios has a hand in creating inflation in the value of West Leechburg residents’ tax bills, Keibler said.

The latest in a line of proposed solutions that already includes a tax rebate, a potential lawsuit and property reassessments was a new formula created by Westmoreland County assessors to calculate the school district’s annual budget. Keibler previously told TribLive the district was planning to pursue a waiver to use the new formula rather than the one provided by STEB.

“It was discussed, but what (Hanft) has shared with us is that, in order for (the formula) to change, or to be able to use it, we’d need legislation to change,” Keibler said. “It’s a part of the school code statute.”

Appealing to legislators, Keibler said, is not in the plans for the district to pursue unless all other avenues for a solution fail.

The formula was developed by Westmoreland County Chief Assessor Camdon Porterfield. He was brought into the process by county commissioners while Leechburg Area officials were exploring the possibility of filing a lawsuit against Westmoreland County to force a reassessment. He and his deputy assessor looked over the numbers being used in the STEB formula to see whether there were any discrepancies.

“We did find that the taxation was unequal, and, about two weeks later, we had finally developed a very long, winding formula that seemed to level out the tax rates,” Porterfield said.

West Leechburg residents saw their property taxes increase by 10.4% when the school board passed the 2024-25 budget. The massive hike was because of the equalization formula provided by the State Tax Equalization Board, which was created to compensate for the lack of assessment uniformity among counties.

School districts that cross county lines are required to use the formula because it 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 reassessment and sales in the county each fiscal year. The last time Westmoreland County properties were reassessed was in 1973, and Armstrong County was last reassessed in 1997.

These value differences resulted in a $655 difference in tax bills for similar district properties in Westmoreland and Armstrong counties.

While the proposed formula would have eased the burden of West Leechburg residents now, in addition to its questionable legality, it would not adapt with changing assessment values or updated sales in the counties.

“To reformulate that formula every year when the ratio changes is going to be a huge undertaking,” Porterfield said. “I think the consensus is that the school district and the state need to come together on a long-term, commonsense solution through all of this.”

He said using the formula he created would require legwork each year when it comes time to be incorporated into budget planning.

Porterfield said to take the formula with a grain of salt, as he is not a tax equalization professional. He said the State Tax Equalization Board should remain the authority to turn to when looking at equalization calculations.

“The calculations that the state makes, we’re not privy to — and the school district isn’t privy to them either,” he said.

As of now, Keibler said, West Leechburg residents will be looking at a roughly 4-mill decrease for their property taxes next school year because the district was able to get multiple properties in Armstrong County reassessed.

“It will help (West Leechburg residents) out in the long run, but it still doesn’t solve the issue,” Keibler said.

Keibler, Porterfield, Hanft, STEB chairwoman Renee Reynolds and Armstrong County Chief Assessor Cathleen Beere plan to meet Nov. 19 to “put everybody at the same table,” Keibler said.

Since representatives from all entities involved will be at the meeting, Keibler said, there will be no “finger pointing” like there has been in the past. He said the State Tax Equalization Board previously had pointed to the state Education Department for a solution, and vice versa.

“We’re really going to dig and find the root (of the problem) so we know who exactly we have to go to to make changes with,” Keibler said.

Keibler said the district’s last resort would be legal action if a resolution can’t be found.

“If they don’t (make some changes), that’s when we’ll take some legal proceedings,” he said.

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