Controller wants you to know your new house value

    Philadelphia’s Board of Revision of Taxes has come up with a new set of property value assessments that could upend the taxes paid by hundreds of thousands of homeowners. That effort has sparked a range of strong opinions, including some pointed questions from the city’s elected fiscal watchdog.

    Philadelphia’s Board of Revision of Taxes has come up with a new set of property value assessments that could upend the taxes paid by hundreds of thousands of homeowners. That effort has sparked a range of strong opinions, including some pointed questions from the city’s elected fiscal watchdog.

    Listen:
    [audio: 090430tmproperty.mp3]

    Controller Alan Butkovitz says he wants the reevaluation of over a half million Philadelphia properties made public, not kept secret between the Board of Revision of Taxes, City Council and Mayor Nutter.

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    Butkovitz: Homeowners of Philadelphia have the right to know the financial impact of their specific reassessment and subsequent tax bill.  Anything less than the full disclosure of this report and property specific data is unacceptable.

    But the new property values will work in tandem with a new tax rate to be set by Mayor Nutter and City Council. Former BRT head David Glancey says that tax rate will temper the updated property value assessments.

    Glancey: What has to happen is that council and the mayor have to re-look at the tax rate, whatever they are going to be is substantially less than they are today.

    Complicating matters further are property tax hikes proposed by Mayor Nutter.

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