Philadelphia's Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)

> Funny how, homes that were purchased for 50K just years ago are suddenly now worth 80K and in some places  100K.....Funny how this is occurring in some of the poorest neighborhoods....Neighborhoods like West Philadelphia, Germantown, Juniana Park, West Kensington, Southwest Philadelphia...Areas populated by African-Americans, Latinos and poor white immigrants...

If you want to laugh some more...think about this....The majority of the 24 schools closed or scheduled to be closed in June are also in these same areas.....Co-incidence?? My grandmother used to say that there is no such thing as co-incidence....She meant that things and often the most sinister things follow a definite pattern.

In the 70's, there used to be a saying...''Urban Renewal means Negro Removal"...I see that happening more and more on a grand scale right now... As Universities like my employer, The University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Drexel and St. Joes buys up more property and expand their campuses in these areas, whic ironically they settled in because the property value was low and thus cheap....More and more of the neighborhood people will be priced out of their homes and forced to move....and the complexion of these neighborhoods will once again shift and change...

I'm not a big conspiracy theory nut....But this is so obvious ,it's not funny....I even see a day when closed schools are suddenly re-opened and refurbished.....because it's funny....The city, the state and the federal government can magically come up with money....to do whatever they want...WHEN THEY WANT TO!

Makes me wanna holler!

This is a joke...shame I don't smoke!

Philadelphia like most cities, relies on property taxes for school funding; in fact, in the United States, nearly half of all property tax revenue is used for public elementary and secondary education. It’s complicated and often unpopular from a tax policy standpoint because property tax dollars are closely tied to the economy with affluent areas clearly bringing in more revenue than impoverished ones. However, funding formulas tend to stress equality among schools within the same district (and in some cases, the same state) even when the sources of funding are not equal.


Property taxes are also unpopular because they are sensitive to trends in the market, making them often unreliable. What’s hot in real estate today might be old news the next – and vice versa. Fluctuations in the market also make property values somewhat subjective which means that taxpayers don’t often agree with the taxing authorities about a fair price.


That’s exactly what’s happening here in Philadelphia. The old system of assessing properties wasn’t working. Values were, in most cases, depressed which were keeping property taxes relatively low. As the City has enjoyed a renaissance of sorts, as many other urban areas in the United States like Atlanta, Boston, San Francisco and Chicago have done, real estate values have vacillated with peaks in hipster neighborhoods and dips in less favorable areas. The result is a mishmosh of assessed values, making any efforts to collect sufficient revenues virtually impossible.

The Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, said about the problem, “For decades this broken, mysterious system has meant that many people have been paying more than they should, while others have paid less than they should.” Really? Who is paying less than they should? Somebody on 60th Street or someone in Northern Liberties?

In 2010, the City created a new agency, the Office of Property Assessment (OPA), to assess all real property (nearly 600,000 parcels) in the City. However, a few months later, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the City did not have the authority to replace the existing Bureau of Revision of Taxes (BRT) for appeals. The compromise was to keep BRT in place as the property assessment appeals board while OPA reassessed the properties.

 Those assessments were finally completed and in February of 2013, new assessments – and thus, new property tax bills – were mailed out..

As you can imagine, the new property tax bills weren’t a hit. Almost immediately, taxpayers were complaining about adjustments. The new tax bills made news and raised tempers Justifiably so. City council members reported above average calls to complain about the bills and, anticipating an increase in visitors, the City staffed OPA with armed guards.
The increase in visits to OPA could be attributed to the sheer number of property owners affected. Between 60% and 75% of all property owners were expected to see an increase in their tax bills, though Marisa Waxman, Deputy Administrator for Assessment of Programs and Policy at OPA, says that the Administration is seeking to collect the same amount of Real Estate Tax revenue in 2014 under AVI as in 2013 under the old system. That’s because some property owners – including the Mayor – are expecting a drop intheir tax bills.

Waxman says that the ultimate goal of AVI is to produce values that are “fair, accurate” but many property owners say that the assessments are simply wrong. How wrong? Philadelphia Controller Butkovitz suggests the error rate
of the assessments is as high as 30% but the Mayor’s office claims that the number of inaccurate assessments is closer to 14%
.
Taxpayers who believe that their assessment isn’t accurate can ask for a First Level Review by the OPA. According to Waxman, forms for a review were included with the assessment notice and are due on March 31, 2013. If the review doesn’t produce a satisfactory result, homeowners can formally appeal to the Board of Revision of Taxes. There are three categories for appeal: Market Value (the assessment doesn’t reflect market value); Non-uniformity (the assessment is out of line generally with similar properties); or Incorrect Exemption/Abatement.


An appeal isn’t the next step for homeowners who can’t afford to pay their new tax bills. Those homeowners should consider any of a number of programs already in place to help low-income homeowners and seniors. State programs are also available (brochure downloads as a pdf). And, beginning this year, the City is offering a Homestead Exemption which reduces the taxable value by $30,000 for approved homeowners.
Once the dust settles on appeals and assessments, is this the end of the line for awhile? Waxman says no. OPA intends to conduct annual assessments going forward to determine if changes in the market or other factors would warrant additional changes. The plan, Waxman says, is to ensure that the City “is never again in the situation it has been with inaccurate values.”

Ultimately, a set of reliable assessments might make it easier for the School District of Philadelphia to meet its budget (other spending and population issues notwithstanding). But this is bigger than Philadelphia. This whole process raises valid questions about the suitability of relying on property taxes to keep our schools open. With so much fluctuation, subjectivity and potential for inequity, is there perhaps a better way?

All I know is that the next person running for Mayor and City Controller are going to have  some serious questions to answer...I won't forget this...and you shouldn't forget it either!