Leechburg Area School Board members say they intend to file a lawsuit against Westmoreland County and possibly one against the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
The lawsuits would be aimed at bringing about a solution to demands from West Leechburg residents to fix what they say is an inequity in the district’s real estate taxes.
In the proposed lawsuit against Westmoreland County, the school board accuses the county of not conducting timely reassessments of properties. In the potential lawsuit against the PDE, board members claim the requirement of using an equalization formula causes unequal taxation within the district.
The proposed lawsuit comes after Pittsburgh Public Schools and other districts in Allegheny County filed a similar lawsuit there, claiming Allegheny County’s delay in reassessing properties is hurting school districts.
More than 60 residents attended a West Leechburg town hall Thursday hosted by members of the Leechburg Area School Board to discuss ongoing issues regarding tax rates.
West Leechburg property owners have complained about the tax inequity for years and, earlier this year, again demanded a new tax structure. The current tax rate in West Leechburg is 158.61 mills. The tax rate in Leechburg and Gilpin is 68.48 mills. Millage rates cannot be compared across county lines.
That is a 10.4% (14.96 mills) increase for West Leechburg property owners and a 2.9% (2.06 mills) decrease for those in Leechburg and Gilpin from the 2023-24 budget.
“We can’t let this happen anymore,” said Leechburg Area Superintendent David Keibler. “I can’t have half the district upset and the other half not. We have to work together. It’s for everybody here.”
The difference in tax rates is common for school districts that cross county lines because of an equalization formula provided by the State Tax Equalization Board (STEB), a board that was created in 1947 to compensate for the lack of assessment uniformity among counties.
“We’re going back to legislation that was created in 1947 that they want to continue to use in 2024,” Keibler said.
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The formula attempts to raise or lower millage rates to balance the dollar amount residents living in different counties pay in taxes to their school districts. The numbers are based on the property values from the most recent reassessment and sales in the county each fiscal year.
During the meeting, Keibler shared that there is a 24-year difference in the values used in the equalization formula. The last time Westmoreland County properties were reassessed was in 1973, and Armstrong County was last reassessed in 1997. These value differences resulted in a $655 difference in tax bills between counties.
Because of STEB adjustments based on assessment values, West Leechburg residents have seen a $384 increase in their tax bill since the 2022-23 school year despite the school board not raising taxes since the 2018-19 school year.
“Two of those three years, you guys as Westmoreland County residents, as West Leechburg residents, have been having your taxes raised higher than the Act 1 index, which the state says is illegal,” Keibler said. “You’re not even allowed to raise taxes above that without (the state Department of Education) giving permission to do that. This calculation has automatically done that two out of the last three years.”
The discussion of a lawsuit against the county comes after board members explored other solutions, including appealing sales in Leechburg and Gilpin to balance the formula and hiring the district’s previous business manager, Brad Walker, to teach district officials about the appeal process and speak to members of the STEB board.
The most recent proposed solution was a program in which properties there that qualify for the state’s Homestead/Farmstead Exemption would receive a rebate from the district for any tax increase not offset by the exemption. The rebate, to be paid entirely through school district funds, would not be available to property owners in Leechburg and Gilpin and caused the program to come into conflict with the Uniformity Clause, opening the district to a possible lawsuit.
The announcement of potential lawsuits against Westmoreland County and the Department of Education received applause from residents at the town hall.
“We can fight the numbers STEB uses for the formula,” Keibler said.
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One resident called the threat of litigation the board’s “greatest weapon.” Another said that if West Leechburg taxes keep rising as quickly as they have been, it will become a “ghost town.”
Even if a lawsuit against Westmoreland County is successful and properties are reassessed, that could lead to another inequity, this time for the district’s Armstrong County residents, whose assessments then would be more than 25 years behind those in Westmoreland County.
When asked what the plan to handle that would be, Keibler said he would continue to work with residents in the district.
He said the Armstrong and Westmoreland County commissioners were invited to the meeting to try to get ahead of the issue. State Rep. Abby Major, R-Leechburg, also was invited to the town hall. None of them showed up.
The board also will discuss whether they will file a lawsuit against the Department of Education over the STEB formula before the decision is voted on.
Keibler said board members will be voting on entering into litigation at the board’s next meeting on Aug. 28. He said if the district’s solicitor, Gary Matta, has the paperwork ready sooner, the voting could be moved up to the board’s agenda meeting on Aug. 14.
Haley Daugherty is a TribLive reporter covering local politics, feature stories and Allegheny County news. A native of Pittsburgh, she lived in Alabama for six years. She joined the Trib in 2022 after graduating from Chatham University. She can be reached at hdaugherty@triblive.com.