Philadelphia

There are currently two very different views regarding what is going on with the Philadelphia property tax reform Actual Value Initiative (AVI). At stake is the largest tax reform in recent Philadelphia history and hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Office of Property Assessment and local real-estate expert Kevin Gillen argue that the new assessments are more accurate and more progressive than the old ones.

The Controller's Office argues that new assessments are less accurate and less progressive than the old ones.

The City of Philadelphia Controller's Office just released a report that trashes the city's efforts to accurately re-assess the value of its property.

The AVI's values are widely inaccurate and three times worse than industry standards for accuracy.

I've written a web application that lets you analyze the impact of various Philadelphia property tax rates. You can choose the rate, a homestead exemption, and select a number of property value categories. You can analyze residential and other property types (commercial, industrial, stores with dwellings, etc).

It shows who gains/loses from property tax reform by property value as well as the overall shift of taxation from commercial to residential (and to stores with dwellings).

Mayor Nutter's proposal would cost over a hundred thousand households that rent in Philadelphia $50-$200/year.

How can these households be helped?

1. A Lower Property Tax Rate
If the city stops transferring part of the overall tax burden from commercial and industrial properties to residential, then the rate would be lower. However, if we want to reduce the tax rate enough for people renting houses that are worth around $80,000 - then we actually need to not only stop this transfer but reverse it. We probably need to get the rate down to 1%.

Industrial properties are the fourth largest segment of the Philadelphia property market. Industrial properties have the lowest valuation increase, probably due to deindustrialization. There may be lower demand for industrial properties as people aren't starting new industrial businesses and converting them into residential or commercial properties is a big job.

The third most important part of Philadelphia property is the multi-family category. So far I haven't seen much analysis of this segment.

Three Options
-Nutter's proposal - 1.32 rate
-Kenney's proposal - 1.2 rate
-My proposal - 1.45 rate with a $30,000 property exemption (though I'm not sure if this a good idea for multi family - I might want to limit it to residential and commercial properties).

Unit Exemption - An Even Better Option

The new valuations for commercial properties will generally cause their taxes to decrease.

This analysis is only looking at the regular property tax rate paid by commercial property. I am not looking at the Use and Occupancy tax as Nutter has not made a proposal on this that I know of. If the Use and Occupancy tax is not decreased it will lead to a dramatic increase in tax on commercial property as the U&O tax is set at 5.51% (four times the proposed 1.32% rate). My guess is that the U&O tax will be decreased to make it roughly revenue neutral - perhaps between 0.5% and 1%.

Note: this is a work in progress. I'm adding data as I find it.

Philadelphia has not revised its property valuations for a very long time. As a result, on average the properties are valued at a third or fourth of their market price. Some properties are valued and taxed at a tenth of the market price.

Recently Philadelphia revalued its properties and is planning to impose this tax reform in 2014.

Mayor Michael Nutter is proposing a 1.32% tax rate with a $15,000 homeowner exemption. The exemption would exclude the first $15,000 of property value from taxation.

Over the past two weeks, the level of conflict within Occupy Philadelphia has risen to a new peak.

As of Saturday at 4pm, Julia and I counted 225 tents at Occupy Philadelphia (195 personal tents and 30 work tents/canopies). The media team put out a press release saying 300. We were relatively strict, but we did include two child play tents. A more generous count method would have given 240 tents, but I don't see how they could have reached 250, unless they didn't actually count the tents. Hopefully they aren't intentionally exaggerating.