Allegheny County executive seeks to limit property info (phillyBurbs.com) | Pennsylvania News Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato wants to restrict the county's online real estate assessment Web site so people cannot search by owner name.Sunshine is the best disinfectant. If he is able to turn off the lights, the corruption can spread more easily.
Onorato said he has been made aware of instances in which people have searched for law enforcement officials, teachers, judges and crime victims.
How will we know what streets to pave if we don't know where the ward bosses live?
Law enforcement officials have guns, badges, and peers who can pick up those that would be a threat to them.
Judges only need to worry about a retention vote every ten years -- and that's very peaceful democracy in action.
Taking info off the web site will not prevent crime victims from those crimes. Onorato would need a real "turn back the clock machine" for that to occur -- not simply his flash-back taxing metric.
If people don't want to have their name in a property ownership database, then they should form a corporation and hold the property by that name. They won't need the homestead exemption either.
Does Dan Onorato want to limit the access to the voter database too?
The killing of a judge in an Atlanta courthouse is sad news, indeed. However, it happened in the courthouse, not at his home. How can that be justifications for removal of the data from citizens.
Judges who are fearful of the 'boogie man' should hang up their black robes and retire. Judges can always buy another property in another part of town and rent out. Then they can rent where they live. There are hundreds of ways rich people can hide themselves from the property database already.
Heck, sometimes those with influence are able to hide whole properties from the tax database so tax bills are never sent nor paid nor missed.
I'd much rather have everything in the open.
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Allegheny County executive seeks to limit property info
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH - Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato wants to restrict the county's online real estate assessment Web site so people cannot search by owner name.
Onorato said he has been made aware of instances in which people have searched for law enforcement officials, teachers, judges and crime victims.
Onorato asked county council to limit searches by parcel number and street address. The Web site lets users search for the assessed values of 550,000 properties.
"The purpose of the county's real estate Web site is to allow public research on individual parcels, including assessed values and taxes paid, as a means of determining fair and consistent property valuations," Onorato said. "The purpose of the site is not to provide information on individual property owners."
In his proposal, Onorato included a list of other counties and comparable metropolitan areas that restrict Web searches to parcel numbers and addresses. Among those were Erie and Philadelphia counties and Atlanta, Denver, Detroit and Seattle.
Council reaction was mixed.
"I understand people get on there (and) like to search for Steelers, Pirates, people around town," said Council President Rich Fitzgerald. "I'm reluctant to take information off of the Web site. ... I'm mixed on it right now."
Councilman Matt Drozd said he would prefer allowing property owners to remove their names if they choose, but he acknowledged that might be too costly.
"First and foremost, we have to protect individuals," Drozd said. "We'll have to get more feedback from people, but I would say most of the people in the county would be in favor of it."
Tim Potts, co-founder and president of Democracy Rising Pennsylvania, said he does not see the need.
"They should be able to get (information) as conveniently as possible," Potts said. "That's like saying you shouldn't be able to look in phone books."
Council is expected to consider the request Tuesday.
In June 2005, the county removed the names of about 100 judges from the site. Officials acted after the husband and mother of a federal judge were killed in Chicago and a county judge was killed in an Atlanta courthouse.
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