The Never-Changing Assessment: Pennsylvania's Broken Property Tax System.

Baker, Nicholas A.

Nearly every county in Pennsylvania uses the base-year system to assess properties for purposes of ad valorem property taxation. Because counties infrequently reassess under the base-year system, its continued use results in taxpayers bearing unequal tax burdens, thereby violating federal equal protection and state uniformity jurisprudence. To have an assessment scheme that passes both federal and state constitutional standards, Pennsylvania must reform its assessment practices by mandating regular countywide reassessments and providing for greater state oversight. While academic publications have previously contemplated whether individual components of Pennsylvania assessment law are constitutional, none have scrutinized the entire system. Pennsylvania courts and the state legislature have failed to take appropriate action to fix the property tax system. Pennsylvania courts' reluctance to strike down the base-year system as an unconstitutional violation of the Pennsylvania Uniformity Clause has further exacerbated the issues arising from the system and the state legislature has not remedied the broken statutory scheme. Pennsylvania must ensure uniform taxation among properties in each county by eliminating the base-year system.

PENNSYLVANIA; PROPERTY tax; TAX assessment; TAX base; AD valorem tax; TAX incidence; JURISPRUDENCE

Penn State Law Review, 2024, Vol 128, Issue 3, p849

1545-7877

Academic Journal