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Dice roll on assessments
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share thisPennsylvania's over-reliance on property taxes to fund local governments and school districts causes a wide range of problems.
More so than in most other states, for example, there are wide disparities in the amounts of money available to school districts, based on the value of their property tax bases.
Compounding the problems are a lack of uniform state standards and a hodgepodge of assessment systems that often make assessments something of a crapshoot.
That's appropriate relative to the state's newest growth industry - casinos.
A revealing story in The Morning Call of Allentown has shown how weaknesses in assessment protocols, relative to new casinos, constitute yet another cry for sweeping assessment reform at the state level.
Due to the lack of uniform standards and processes, casinos around the state have been assessed at widely divergent values. Yes, those values are inherently different based on local market conditions, but there is not even a coherent, uniform system to determine those values.
Dauphin County set the value of the Hollywood Casino there at $280 million, while Monroe County set the value of the Mount Airy Casino Resort - the only operating casino to include a hotel - at just $47 million. Luzerne County assessors placed the value of the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs at $100 million.
It might be understandable that there is no universal standard for casino assessment because casinos are, after all, new entities in Pennsylvania.
But widespread disparities in assessments are common statewide for established businesses and residents, even within counties.
Pennsylvania has, in effect, 67 different systems for assessing property taxes. The widely divergent casino assessments are just the latest manifestations of a fractured system.
The underlying issue is not government revenue alone, but fair taxation. Establishing that calls for uniform statewide standards. The Legislature should see to the fair distribution of the local tax burden by mandating uniform standards.
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