A state House Republican committee met for more that two hours in Richland this morning, to hear testimony on the inequity of Pennsylvania's property tax assessment system.

The fundamental weakness of property assessment in Pennsylvania is a lack of state oversight, political will and public education or trust in the efficacy of consistent reassessments, a group of pro-assessment advocates told the committee.

Assessments became a statewide issue earlier this year when the state Supreme Court ruled that Allegheny County's system of linking values to a base year (2002) was unfair because it didn't recognize decreasing values in poor communities and increasing values in rich communities. Since many counties use a similar system, the state Legislature agreed to review the issue.

Dominick Gambino, a former manager of Allegheny County's Office of Property Assessment, told the 10-member Republican policy group that any state-level fix of the assessment system should start with education of the public.

Property owners need to know, he said, "what an assessment is, what it does and how it affects property owners."

The state House, Mr. Gambino continued, should take a lead role in not only implementing a state-run system of property assessment, but in dispelling the myth that a property reassessment automatically leads to a property tax increase.

As part of any reassessment, he said, property owners ought to know that, "if you should pay more (in property taxes) you do pay more." But high assessments should lead to a lower tax rate so the governments don't receive a windfall of revenue.

Meeting in the Richland Township Municipal Building under the auspices of House Republican Whip Mike Turzai, the group of legislators sought to understand what their role should be in implementing an equitable property assessment system in the wake of Allegheny County's woes.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court earlier this year threw out Allegheny County's base-year assessment system, declaring it unconstitutional because it violated the uniformity clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution.

And now, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr., following an Oct. 19 hearing, is in the process of determining how and when the county must conduct a new property assessment.

Legislators, who already have undertaken a year-long study of property assessments in Pennsylvania, want to know, what is -- if any -- their role should be in crafting a single assessment process across the state.

Noting that some counties haven't reassessed property values several decades, state Rep. John Evans, R-Erie, asked, "How can we persuade counties to reassess?"

The best way would be by enacting state law that mandates counties to conduct consistent and fair property reassessments, said a number of advocates.

Among them were Douglas Hill, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania; Eric Montarti, a policy analyst of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy; and Robert Junker, one of the attorneys who sued Allegheny County because of its inequitable assessment system.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

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