if the common level ratio is artificially low that will exaggerate the value of improvements and minimize the effect of inflation. And if you make improvement s and don’t sell your house you get an advantage over people who make improvements but do sell

Yes the math gets fuzzy how much to attribute to inflation 63% or 81% and that’s what the lawsuit is over

Edit another way is 2.1% versus 4.7% compound annual growth rate

which one is the newer one? Are any of them high efficiency?

The threshold for appeal is dependent on the locality. By improvements, I don’t mean additions or major modifications, I just mean the sale price was a lot higher than buying a fixer upper so more likely to get flagged.

Well that’s almost funny how she sidestepped any accountability. Why does she get re-elected?

This is an interesting idea. Op needs to investigate where the hot water from each goes.

Maybe a marriage counselor suggested it because they were fighting over who used up all the hot water. So they got a separate his and hers hot water heaters and were too lazy to figure out the gas lines and venting so they went electric /sarcasm

I’m not an expert or a resident but I have followed the news about the district. Is Erin Vecchio this who you are referring to?

Vecchio first served on the Penn Hills school board from 1988 to 2009. She returned to the board in 2016 after the district developed a $172 million debt.

https://www.wtae.com/amp/article/erin-vecchio-running-for-state-representative-in-pennsylvania-house-32nd-district/32715216

But not the Steelers

Wow that’s your problem. 80 gallons is enough for 15 people. Forty gallons is for a small family and 50 for a big family. And why would they use electric over gas? Whoever they were, they are weird. Gas is usually a lot cheaper around here but you should investigate if you have gas lines and the venting needed. I guess it depends on how they are fed to the sinks and showers - do they feed into separate hot water pipe networks or do they combine into one system? You can get tax credits to swap in a high efficiency electric water heater but the purpose of those is usually when you have no gas line or want to reduce your carbon footprint.

Why is water heaters plural? That’s not very common in the states. Do you have separate water heaters in each room? I thought people used those in countries where energy is expensive and they only turn them in an hour before they use them and turn them off when done

It’s almost double what your mortgage is because you bought a cheap house that probably was build pre 1970s and has no insulation. You could invest in attic insulation, double pane windows, and high efficiency furnace. Your electricity seems high especially if you have a gas furnace. Can you provide more details? Welcome to home ownership. It takes a lot of effort to research all these issues and be a successful homeowner

Edit: electric hot water heater is strange. There are high efficiency heat pump electric hot water heaters but they are expensive and I bet you have a basic resistance hot water heater so get that replaced with something better. You will need to research your setup though because swapping electric to gas involves gas lines and very important proper venting. You can get a tax credit for a fancy heat pump electric water heater if you can’t fit gas

The news picks an issue and beats it death. They like to shit on Penn hills but the old guard admins are gone and they are turning things around. But because click bait articles pay the bills and they are lazy jagoffs, the news media continues to shit on the district and in the process are perpetuating a self fulfilling prophecy of a failing district

Edit: there is still some of old guard around

You are still missing the point I’m trying to make. Penn hills wasn’t unique in building new schools. They built new schools without a large enough tax base to pay for them. It’s not like they were a good district before they spent the money. It has become a self fulfilling prophecy as people learn the school district is failing, housing prices go down which means tax rate has to go up. I support early education and they should spend money on the most effective solutions. Your exaggerated numbers are obnoxious

I’m not disputing that and you are trying to straw man my point. I’m disputing your exaggerated numbers and oversimplification in your original comment that might perpetuate a false narrative that the students didn’t deserve a new school

Don’t put words in my mouth. I said the new schools were a symptom not the cause itself. They were part of a larger problem of poor budgeting. My point is other districts built new schools but properly budgeted for it and had the luxury of larger tax base.

Due to ongoing lawsuits the 80% number may be revised to 63%

They spent $140 million on buildings. The high school was $60 mil. Many districts build new schools around the same time. Bethel park built a $100 mil school. The new buildings were symptoms of the problem in Penn hills not the cause. The whole district was run poorly with poor accounting and declining enrollment and a shrinking tax base.

Here is some actual information on the school district instead of made up numbers

https://www.wesa.fm/education/2019-02-05/penn-hills-school-district-172-million-in-debt-according-to-grand-jury-report

https://www.publicsource.org/penn-hills-school-elementary-finances-oversight-academics/

The last time there was a county wide reassessment was 2012. When you buy a house, it can trigger a new reassessment. It is informally called a “newcomers tax” The new value is usually a lot higher than your neighbors who haven’t moved since 2012 because the math they use is questionable and the subject of ongoing lawsuits. If you bought a house that has a lot of updates, they will try to use the sale price to justify a lofty assessment value. You should look into how to argue for a lower assessment using facts and data.

https://www.pghfirm.com/blog/secrets-to-winning-your-allegheny-county-tax-appeal

https://www.reedsmith.com/en/perspectives/2022/11/allegheny-county-in-legal-limbo

https://www.publicsource.org/allegheny-county-property-tax-appeal-assessment-lawsuit-unbalanced/

https://www.wesa.fm/politics-government/2023-01-25/county-council-gives-some-taxpayers-second-shot-at-challenging-property-assessments

Yikes that fire was a mess. It’s hard to estimate exactly but I could round up to an optimistic 50,000 or 5% of area jobs with half downstream manufacturing jobs. Hopefully healthcare education and tech make up for the slow decline over the next decade or more

Us steel has signaled they don’t plan to upgrade the mon valley works and instead have bought an electric arc mill in Arkansas. I think the writing is on the wall that steel production will move out of Pittsburgh to areas with an abundance of cheap green electricity like hydro solar and wind. It’s going to take decades to wind down the area steel mills.

1.2 million jobs in the metro area. 4000 employees at US Steel and 1500 at ATI. Maybe there are 20,000 downstream steel manufacturing jobs.

Education and health 233,000 Trade and transport 200,000 Professionals 187,000 Government 106,000 Leisure 125,000 Financials 76,000 Manufacturing 83,000 Construction 64,000 Information 21,000 Mining 9000 Financials 76,000

Huge bribes of historic proportions! Probably should have elected Doug Mastriano instead so he could wear his civil war uniform for the wrong side of the Mason Dixon line . Oh wait it’s $36.

Now we have video

They “luxury” buildings sprouting up around the city are butt ugly and paper thin. Ryan houses are quite bad also. The terraces in the hill and the new housing in Larimar looks decent. Some of the rehab work by Trex is really good.

I like to point out to people that private for profit companies are just as wasteful and awful as government housing projects and they build really low quality apartments and houses. I also like to point out democrats raise taxes on the richest people to pay for welfare while republicans will never do that. Republicans are more likely to keep rich peoples taxes lower by not only underfunding welfare but also keeping middle class taxes higher

My main point is vote against the racists but I’m mostly just rambling. Libertarians say government is inherently corrupt and private sector will solve the problem more efficiently. Some middle class working families think democrats will tax them to pay for housing for lazy people. These aren’t my views but I’m just pointing out the arguments you might hear from some people so you can prepare yourself accordingly to think of ideas that will win over more support for what you want to see happen