| Sign up | Log in | Forgot Password |
There are four things that city residents want - that they are not getting - in the property tax system: transparency, fairness, certainty and something for their money.
First, the system is not transparent, so taxpayers do not have a clear sense of how the system works and who is in charge. Property taxes in Philadelphia are controlled by something called the Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT). Members of the BRT are appointed by the judges of the Common Pleas Court in a secret ballot. This bizarre structure means that taxpayers do not know who can fix the system, because no one takes responsibility. Not the Mayor and not City Council.
The second missing ingredient is fairness. The current system does not base taxes on realistic property values and does not value all properties at the same assessment level. Virtually all property taxes in Philadelphia are based on below-market values: some are at 50 percent and some are at 70 percent. As a result, the BRT has lots of leeway to hike someone's taxes without going over the legal limit. The result of this is that citizens believe deep down that the system is fixed and that other people are getting a break that they aren't getting.
The third missing element is certainty. Many people are upset because they are getting hit with a big tax hike for the second year in a row, and they want to know whether it could happen again next year. Everything we know about business and economic development is that people and businesses value certainty above almost everything else they need to budget for tax increases. The current system provides no certainty.
Finally, many residents are angry because they feel that they aren't getting anything for their tax dollars. It doesn't matter whether the BRT calls this a reassessment, because in fact, it is a tax hike and taxpayers need to know what they are getting for their money. Many residents, for example, feel that they use relatively few city services many send their children to private schools - and that the ones they do use are lousy. The city cannot afford to lose this economic base.
Terry Gillen terryg181@hotmail.com
