Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. today declared unconstitutional the state law that allows counties to use a base-year system for property assessments.

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In a 94-page decision, Judge Wettick also ordered Allegheny County's chief assessment officer to complete a computer-assisted reassessment of the county by March 31, 2008, for use in 2009.

He also ordered another reassessment by March 31, 2009.

The decision is a blow to Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, who in 2005 settled on a base-year system after he refused to implement figures from a new reassessment. Those numbers, which would have gone into effect in 2006, would have resulted in assessment increases averaging nearly 20 percent for all homeowners.

Instead, he decided to use figures from the previous assessment in 2002 as a base year, which almost all counties in the state use. Under that system, all property would be taxed based on its value in 2002.

The decision could have statewide implications because so many counties use the base-year system.

At a news conference this afternoon, Mr. Onorato said the county will appeal. He said he believes the judge overstepped his jurisdiction by issuing a time limit for a new assessment.

The issue of assessments has been hot in Allegheny County for nearly 40 years.

The current case was filed in 2005, just 23 days after Mr. Onorato announced the county would move to a base-year system in which property assessments would be pegged to their values in 2002.

The plaintiffs argued the base year would violate the uniformity clause of the constitution because values in some communities are dropping while other's rise, creating an inherent inequity.

Mr. Onorato has argued that every other county in the state works off the same system which was allowed by the state legislature and Gov. Dick Thornburgh in 1982.

In the final brief on the case filed by County Solicitor Michael H. Wojcik he noted that the base year is being used in every county in Pennsylvania and there has been no controversy about it in 66 of them "the lone exception being Allegheny County, where challenging property assessments has become a cottage industry."

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.