The following is the Part 2 transcript of a report by Team 4 investigator Jim Parsons that first aired Nov. 10, 2006, on WTAE Channel 4 Action News at 6 p.m.

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Click Here for Part 1 of this report.

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Property tax breaks for mansions, country clubs and developers?

A Team 4 Investigation uncovers evidence of lax enforcement by Allegheny County property assessment officials.

Team 4 's Jim Parsons has the results of a three-month investigation.

The program was designed to preserve open space from development like farms and forest land, but there's been a recent rash of applications for the tax breaks, and many of them are not farms or forests.

Soergel's Orchards in Wexford is 130 acres of agriculture and a magnet for developers.

"We wanna stay here and continue to farm, but if we wanted to sell, that's no problem," said Reed Soergel.

"Do you get approached by developers often?" Parsons asked Soergel.

"Oh yeah, all the time," he said.

What helps Soergel keep farming the land instead of selling it is Clean and Green, a program that provides a drastic reduction in his property tax.

But it's no longer just farms and forest land that are getting Clean and Green tax breaks, it's Sewickley Heights mansions and country clubs and even a former toxic waste dump.

Since county executive Dan Onorato took office three years ago, the number of properties getting preferential Clean and Green tax treatment has jumped from 760 to more than 1,100, an increase of 53 percent.

Onorato said it's not his fault that his assessment employees found a backlog of Clean and Green applications when he came into office.

But critics, including school officials from cash-starved districts, claim Onorato's staff is rubber-stamping Clean and Green applications.

"We keep giving preferential treatment in this county to the wealthy landowners, and it all continues to fall on the backs of the less wealthy," said Janet Burkardt, a school district solicitor.

"Much of this is in the judgment of the local official at the county who's making the determination whether or not these qualify for enrollment," said Rep. John Maher, of Upper Saint Clair.

County Assessment Chief Mike Suley admits his staff rarely rejects a Clean and Green application.

"I'd like to believe that most people are honest when they apply," said Suley. "Our assessor goes out, and they're approved in most cases."

Suley also admits his office failed to notice that one particular Sewickley Heights property hasn't been a farm for years, yet the owner is still getting a huge tax break in a category called Agricultural Use.

Without Clean and Green, the land would be assessed at almost $400,000, but, instead, the assessment is actually $4,400.

Tax break recipient Krishna Sharma said she doesn't pay attention to her tax bill and didn't know that state law requires property owners to reapply for Clean and Green when they purchase a parcel that's already in the program.

Suley said his office failed to send Sharma that application last January.

"She apparently is not alone," said Parsons.

Team 4 determined that in the past three years, ownership has changed hands on 46 properties getting Clean and Green tax breaks in the agricultural use category.

Tea, 4 asked to see the required applications on those parcels, but the county has so far failed to provide them. And while Suley claims his assessors personally check on Clean and Green properties, he didn't know the specifics.

"Once that property is in the program, how often do you send an assessor out to take a look at it to make sure it's still qualified to be in the program?" Parsons asked Suley.

"We don't have a schedule," Suley said.

Most of the properties getting Clean and Green tax breaks are under a category the forest reserve category.

State law said forest reserve can include "land, 10 acres or more, stocked by forest trees of any size and capable of producing timber or other wood products.'"

With that loose definition, Allegheny County has given the tax break to country clubs, like Diamond Run, Treesdale and Montour Heights. Also to Chatham Village town house development in Mt. Washington and a former toxic dump in Robinson Township, whose owner, Mays Properties, has tax liens and still owes the state Department of Environmental Protection $350,000 in cleanup costs.

And the forest reserve tax break also went to a wooded property next to the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Harmarville, whose owner, Duff McCrady, has made no secret he wants to turn it into a shopping mall. The county even gave him tax increment financing to help with the development.

"On the one hand, the county is giving this property owner a TIF to develop the land, and the other part of the county is allowing this property to be in Clean and Green to supposedly protect it from development," Parsons told Suley.

"See, I don't know what you're talking about, and it really doesn't matter if I did know. I just do my job," said Suley.

Suley's boss said the problem lies in the law.

"If you're gonna clean this up and have it really applied to a farm or a forest, then we should change the state law and be very specific on what qualifies," said Onorato.

But a man who has the power to help change the law said that's only part of the problem.

"When there's sloppy enforcement, it invites people to test the edges of the envelope," said Maher.

Here's something else our investigation uncovered. Team 4 checked every property getting a Clean and Green assessment break for tax liens. It turns out, 60 of them have unpaid property taxes, which is more than 5 percent of all the properties in the program.

The total owed in back taxes by those property owners comes to $107,000.

Stay tuned to WTAE Channel 4 Action News for more on this investigation in the coming weeks.