White Files Special Legal Brief in Washington County Reassessment Case

State Rep. Jesse White this week filed a 284-page legal brief to discuss pending and recently passed state legislation that would support the Washington County Commissioners' motion to temporarily block an $8 million county-wide property reassessment.

Earlier this month, White, D-Washington/Allegheny/Beaver, won permission from Washington County Court to submit an "amicus curiae" brief, which is highly unusual for a case at the county level. 

"I filed this brief on behalf of every taxpayer who is sick of their dollars being treated like Monopoly money," White said. "If McGuffey and Washington School Districts get their way and force this reassessment, every property from Baltic Avenue to Boardwalk and Park Place will be at risk of devastating tax increases."

In his brief, White argues that "failure to grant the stay and allow the forced reassessment under the current, fundamentally flawed system would cause irreparable financial harm to taxpayers while simultaneously crippling business growth and economic development with no recognizable benefit to the public or the interests of justice."

White added that legal fees for the lawsuit have already cost taxpayers more than $30,000—on top of the projected $8 million cost to conduct the reassessment.

White, a licensed attorney who prepared and presented the petition himself at no taxpayer expense, attended the recent McGuffey School Board meeting to provide the board with an update on his reassessment brief and appealed to them to halt its legal actions.

"I want all of us to work together in the best interest of the taxpayer, but so far McGuffey and Washington have been silent on the issue while refusing to put away the taxpayer's checkbook," White said. "The irony is they are spending taxpayer dollars to force a reassessment that will hurt taxpayers."

Washington County is under a court order to conduct a property reassessment as the result of lawsuits filed by the McGuffey and Washington school districts.

The commissioners argue that the reassessment should not take place until the legislature makes changes to correct flaws in the reassessment process, which are anticipated in the coming months.

For the past year, White has been actively working to overhaul the reassessment system in Pennsylvania.

He helped author legislation that would have imposed a temporary moratorium on county-wide property tax reassessments in Washington County. That bill was passed by the Legislature but vetoed by Gov. Tom Corbett.

In addition, he and state Rep. Brandon Neuman successfully won the Legislature's approval of two bills, which have established task forces to study the county reassessment process and develop uniform standards among other things to streamline the system. 

The task forces' findings will be released by the end of 2011. White and Neuman have also authored several other reassessment reform bills which are still pending in the Legislature.

Editor's Note: View the attached PDF to read White's brief.

This story originally appeared on Canon-McMillan Patch.