A group of taxpayers challenging the constitutionality of Beaver County’s property tax assessment system did not need to show evidence of specific harm to their properties, the Commonwealth Court has ruled.
On Dec. 18, a three-judge panel of the appeals court unanimously ruled in Betters v. Beaver County to uphold a Beaver County trial judge’s ruling that ordered a countywide reassessment by 2020. The trial court had agreed with the plaintiffs that the county violated the uniformity clause of Article VIII, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and the Consolidated County Assessment Law by using 1982 as its base year for property valuation and by failing to uniformly apply its valuation method.
