Strauss Recomends Fairer Property Assessment System
Professor Robert Strauss discussed the Allegheny County property assessment
system with Chief Executive Dan Onorato on KD/PG Sunday Edition, on April
10, 2005 at 11:30 AM. Onorato has placed a 4 percent cap on property assessment
increases.
Strauss proposed introducing an elected assessor, a position that would take some political scrutiny away from the chief executive's office, which currently appoints the county's chief assessment officer.
"Virtue is its own reward," he said. If Onorato's administration can build a better system, "then businesses and people will locate in Allegheny County because it's a better place to live."
Professor Strauss served as Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of the US Treasury in 1970-2, and on the Staff of the Joint Committee, U.S. Congress 1975-1978. Has directed major tax studies in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Washington state, and was appointed to the Pennsylvania Local Tax Reform Commission in 1987 by Governor Robert Casey. He has has served on the advisory board of several federal statistical agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division and the Government's Division of the Census Bureau. He served on the Revenue Estimating Advisory Committee of the Joint Committee on Taxation, U.S. Congress from 1989-1995.
Professor Strauss's general research interests include public economics and human resources. Current research projects include: the national economic implications of international arms races: the case of India and Pakistan; the fairness of urban real estate assessment practices; economic efficiency effects of taxing intermediate and final goods in a multi-state context; effects of deductibility of health expenditures in the federal personal income tax; analysis of migration flows and family composition with individual income tax returns in Pennsylvania; analysis of the teacher retirement decision, effects of economic and working conditions; the supply and demand for school administrators and the effects on student performance; the supply and demand for substitute teachers; and, the relationship between teacher quality and student performance in Pennsylvania.