TITLE
A Resolution of the Council of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, requesting that the Allegheny County Controller perform an update to his 2004 and 2006 "Review of Allegheny County Office of Property Assessments Policies and Procedures Related to the Assessments, Appeals and Valuation Processes for Residential Parcels" with all deliberate speed, and authorizing the Controller to undertake such an update.
BODY
WHEREAS, on June 21, 2004, the Allegheny County Controller released a performance audit of the Office of Property Assessment's policies and procedures, which included a review of the Office's procedures for adding newly constructed properties to the County's tax rolls; and
WHEREAS, that audit found, among other items, that "[a]s of February 2004, 650 lot plans, 7,313 residential building permits, 2,539 commercial building permits, 7,000 parcels to be data entered, and 1,400 interim assessment requests still need to be processed. The residential building permits and commercial building permits are valued at approximately $1,000,000,000, which results in approximately $4,690,000 in lost tax revenue"; and
WHEREAS, in addition, the Controller also noted that "OPA is not cross-checking the lot parcel identification number to the delinquent tax file maintained by the Controller's Office before the lot is subdivided and the original parcel number is deleted or the value is reduced to
zero. We identified 10 parcels out of a sample of 272 lot plans that had partially uncollected delinquent taxes totaling $15,558"; and
WHEREAS, on March 29, 2006, the Controller released an update to this audit, at which time he noted that "[o]ne very consequential recommendation not realized was the urgent need for the OPA to clear its considerable backlog"; and
WHEREAS, in his statement accompanying the release of the 2006 update, the Controller indicated that "[i]n its prior review, the Controller's Office revealed that approximately one billion dollars in assessed values had yet to be put on the tax rolls. The backlog consisted of new construction and property improvements associated with residential and commercial building permits still remaining to be processed. Currently, building permits totaling $1.4 billion have not been fully processed. Correspondingly, open residential permits dating back to November 2003 and open commercial permits dating back to October 2003 still exist. Interestingly, it was determined that the processing of building permits consumes 41 to 43% of the OPA's average yearly workload"; and
WHEREAS, it does not appear that any subsequent updates to these findings have been issued in the more than two years since the last update was presented; and
WHEREAS, it is therefore not known by Council or the public whether the conditions that the Controller highlighted have been remedied or whether the backlog has continued to grow since early 2006; and
WHEREAS, it is the judgment of Council that additional information regarding OPA's assessment activities is necessary, particularly as the Council and County attempt to resolve the County's difficult budgetary situation;
The Council of the County of Allegheny hereby resolves as follows:
Section 1.
Allegheny County Council hereby requests that the Allegheny County Controller perform an update to his 2004 and 2006 "Review of Allegheny County Office of Property Assessments Policies and Procedures Related to the Assessments, Appeals and Valuation Processes for Residential Parcels" with all deliberate speed, with the goal of having such update completed before Council concludes its deliberations on the 2009 budget, and authorizes the Controller to undertake such an update.
Section 2.
Council specifically requests that the Controller's update focus specifically on whether the Office of Property Assessments has resolved the backlog that existed as of the date of release for the 2006 update, with particular emphasis on the Office's current policies and procedures for processing new construction and property improvements associated with residential and commercial building permits, and also address the potential for collecting taxes for prior tax years.
Section 3.
The Controller is hereby requested to develop specific recommendations pertaining to the aforementioned and any other issues identified in the course of the requested audit, and additionally requests that the Controller evaluate the possibility of developing a standardized electronic form for the municipalities to report on new construction and other issues pertaining to the County's tax rolls.
Section 4. If any provision of this Resolution shall be determined to be unlawful, invalid, void or unenforceable, then that provision shall be considered severable from the remaining provisions of this Resolution which shall be in full force and effect.
Section 5. Any Resolution or Ordinance or part thereof conflicting with the provisions of this Resolution is hereby repealed so far as the same affects this Resolution.