Philly Council urges more appeal hearings, more lawyers to uphold commercial tax assessments

Two Philadelphia City Council members are urging city officials to take new commercial tax assessments more seriously. 

Currently the board that hears tax appeals meets two to three days a week, but Councilwoman Helen Gym said that isn’t enough to finalize all the tax appeals and make sure the tax revenue is flowing to the school district and the city.

“Not only meeting the deadline, but potentially exceeding the deadline seems possible if hearings are currently only scheduled two to three days a week,” Gym said Tuesday. “Increasing to four, working to four days a week, seems like that would significantly guarantee that we would meet the deadline.”

Councilman Alan Domb said it’s time to hire more experts to defend the new commercial assessments.

“We should go outside and hire the best attorneys and commercial appraisers to defend this,” he said. “There is too much money at risk.”

Domb said he believes attorneys are waiting for a chance to cut down the new real estate assessments during an appeal hearing.