Pittsburgh: Libraries to Collect More in Taxes After County Revaluations

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Many Pittsburgh residents will pay more to the Carnegie Library system because of this year’s property reassessments and the special library tax voters approved in 2011.
Taxable real estate values jumped 48 percent in the city and 32 percent countywide after the court-ordered revaluations. By state law, the city and other local governments had to slash their 2013 tax rates to avoid a windfall, but the Carnegie and other libraries are not subject to that requirement.
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Library supporters said the tax collections may jump in the short term, but will be flat going forward.
“People might say that’s a windfall and yeah I guess we’re going to have to say that’s true, because we can’t change the rate and we can’t change it this year and we can’t change it 20 years from now,” said city Councilman Patrick Dowd, a Carnegie Library board member and vocal proponent of the tax.

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Filed under: Libraries, News, Special Libraries