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Green's tax-board legislation ready to go

City Councilman Bill Green plans to introduce legislation tomorrow to reform the Board of Revision of Taxes in ways that meet some, but not all, of Mayor Nutter's concerns on the issue.

City Councilman Bill Green plans to introduce legislation tomorrow to reform the Board of Revision of Taxes in ways that meet some, but not all, of Mayor Nutter's concerns on the issue.

Green, who circulated the legislation last week but held off on introducing it at the request of Council's leaders, said in a memo to colleagues yesterday that he had made "substantive changes" based on conversations he has had this week.

The legislation would abolish by 2011 the BRT, which appraises properties for tax bills and hears appeals on those bills.

The city would create two new agencies: the Office of Property Assessment and the Board of Property Assessment Appeals.

Green's first draft gave the city Board of Judges the power to pick the appeals-board members with Council's approval. The Board of Judges currently appoints BRT board members.

Nutter rejected that yesterday, saying that the mayor should appoint the appeals board members.

Green's latest version of the legislation, circulated with his memo yesterday, would have a five-member nominating panel select three candidates for each appeals-board seat. The Common Pleas president judge would pick three people for the nominating panel, and the mayor and president of Council would each pick one.

From the nominations, the mayor would appoint appeals board members to five-year terms. The appointees would have to be approved by Council.

Another Nutter concern, the practice of having some BRT employees on the Philadelphia School District payroll, would remain unchanged in Green's bill.

The BRT has 120 employees on the district's payroll who are not allowed to engage in political activity, and 80 others on the payroll are exempt from that ban. Those 80 patronage employees perform mostly clerical work.

Nutter yesterday said that all BRT employees should be subject to the same rules in a new agency.

The BRT came under fire after an Inquirer series five months ago that detailed mismanagement, political patronage and inaccurate assessments.

Nutter yesterday said that he hopes that Council will act on legislation by its last 2009 session on Dec. 17. Abolishing the BRT would require voter approval in next May's primary election.

"The citizens of Philadelphia deserve no less," Nutter said. "They've waited a long time. There must be an urgency to this work."

That urgency seemed lacking last week after Nutter met with Council leaders to discuss the issue, but emerged with no clear time line to take action.

Green, a frequent Nutter critic, was unhappy to have Council leaders ask him to hold off on his legislation. That prompted frustration from some of his colleagues, who had hoped that the issue would have advanced last week.