Allegheny County Reassessment Plan Accepted

Attorney Ira Weiss, who represents another group of property owners who sued the county, said he considered the proposal "a very solid and ambitious plan.

Mrs. Sable says that we should all pay our "fair share" of taxes. In other words, if our taxes go up, she is in favor of it.
Well, our taxes can go up 19% if the figures from 2005 hold up:

According to the county, a parcel-by-parcel review was done on 175,000 properties during the 2005 reassessment, which was not certified because Mr. Onorato threw it out on grounds that property taxes would have been increased an average of 19 percent.

Martha Creese/William Kipp "Parting Gift" Tax

The proper name for the LST would be: Martha Creese/William Kipp "Parting Gift" Tax. Both departing members of Council and Mayor are voted for this tax at theCouncil Meeting on Nov 18, 09.
Richard Hartman has changed his vote and he is now supporting this Martha Creese/William Kipp "Parting Gift" Tax.

The following is the text of my letter to The Post Gazette on this subject:

The Nov 25, 09 Article in Pg-North says that the new Local Service Tax will bring in $67,600 in Franklin Park Borough . This is someone's guesswork only. I have requested a survey to find out how many people will actually pay this tax and I have also requested an analysis of how much would it cost to collect this tax, neiher of those two functions have been done. This Local Service Tax is a bad idea which will only tax a majority of the people who are helping the Borough, like the teachers at North Allegheny Schools, Borough Employees including 5 part time police officers and employees at Childrens' Hospital and the like. The net collection after expenses is going to be no more than $20,000 a pittance in comparison to the $6.8 Million Budget. I hope the Borough Council will reject this idea specially the members who are leaving the Council after the December meeting. They certainly do not wish to be associated with a "parting gift" in the form of a tax on the people working in the Borough.