Philly councilman proposes four-year phase-in of AVI

Reassessing property taxes in Philadelphia is stirring so much concern that one member of City Council is looking to ease into the changes. 

 

Councilman Mark Squilla says problems with the citywide reassessments have prompted him to call for a four-year phase-in to give the Office of Property Assessment more time to get it right.

“Obviously I feel it’s necessary because of all the inaccuracies we’ve found,” he said. “At this point, I think it will give OPA time to fix the scale of the problems we’ve been seeing.

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“The following couple of years after this, there will be people whose property taxes will be raised,” Squilla continued. “The decrease they find in one year, they will be increased the following year.”

Squilla says a gradual implementation would ease the blow and be revenue neutral.

“It’s the same revenue you would get for doing the whole thing in one year, you would get every year from that because the people who are decreasing the taxes they are paying would be made up in the people who would increase the taxes they would be paying,” he explained. “So the actual revenue would be the same.”

The Nutter administration says it will offer testimony on the bill if and when it receives a hearing.

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