How will Philadelphia businesses fare under revaluation?

Under the city’s new tax reassessment system, city officials say that the property tax burden will shift from businesses to homeowners. This is because many commercial and industrial properties have apparently been relatively overvalued by the city.

That means those property owners could see their taxes drop significantly.  

A local group of state lawmakers wants to amend the Pennsylvania’s Constitution to permit the city to tax residential and commercial properties at different rates. Cities such as Boston and Chicago already do this.  

At the same time, some onlookers believe that businesses on commercial strips — especially mixed-use buildings — will have higher tax bills under the overhaul.  

This issue has not been thoroughly studied, however, because the city only recently compiled data on the new assessments. At WHYY/NewsWorks’ Taxipedia, we’ll be digging into this, so check back later for more details.