Year after year, one of the top concerns for the homeowners of the 18th Senatorial District, as well as many longtime homeowners across the Commonwealth, is rising property taxes.
 
The General Assembly understands this is a problem, especially for counties facing a reassessment after decades of inaction. That is, in part, why both the Senate and House recently passed legislation that Governor Shapiro signed into law as Act 53 of 2024. This Act opened the door for property tax relief to longtime homeowners in the City of Pittsburgh. Homeowners who have lived in their homes for at least 10 years may soon benefit from an exemption or deferral of property tax increases during future reassessments. While this is a significant step forward for Pittsburgh residents, it did nothing to help the homeowners we know struggling back home and no other municipalities outside of Philadelphia or Allegheny County can opt into such a program.
 
To address this, we will introduce a bill to expand eligibility for the Longtime Owner-Occupant Program (LOOP), allowing more counties to participate, including those in the Lehigh Valley.
 
The LOOP provides property tax relief to homeowners who have lived in their homes for at least 10 years by exempting or deferring property tax increases, even if their home assessment values rise in the future. This bill will enable other counties to establish their own LOOP programs, offering much-needed relief to homeowners, particularly those on fixed incomes, and mitigating the negative impacts of property reassessments in counties that have not had a county-wide reassessment in decades.
 
We encourage our colleagues to join us in supporting this legislation, which aims to bring equitable property tax relief to more communities across Pennsylvania.
 
Previous co-sponsors included: COSTA, ARGALL, FONTANA, PENNYCUICK, HUTCHINSON, and SAVAL.