City tax board holds off on full-value assessment

Members of the city's Board of Revision of Taxes yesterday said they wouldn't implement the proposed full-value assessment system until the City Council and state legislature acted to protect property owners from devastating tax increases.

"We can't do it - it's a whole group of things that need to be done," said board member Alan K. Silberstein.

Silberstein and other members said they were awaiting state legislation that would allow Philadelphia to enact special homestead exemptions, and for City Council to enact other protections to shield homeowners from extreme increases in their property assessments and tax bills.

Among those arguing their appeals yesterday was Brett Mandel, executive director of the tax-reform organization Philadelphia Forward. He told board members they were compelled by law to provide fair and accurate assessments.

"The Board of Revision of Taxes has one job - to get the valuation right," Mandel said.

Mandel had two points. First, his $650,000 home in Fitler Square is assessed at less than $160,000 - meaning he isn't paying his fair share of taxes. Second, he said, the board has no right to increase his assessment until the city completes "a comprehensive and fair reassessment of properties."

The board and politicians are trying to avoid the typical nightmare scenario - a senior citizen on fixed income being taxed out of a home because its value has skyrocketed amid gentrification of the neighborhood.

The 2003 Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission concluded that Philadelphia's property assessments "diverge widely from market values," with poorer neighborhoods paying a disproportionate share of property taxes.

The proposed solution: Reassess the whole city and move all assessments to market values, with advanced software that will allow the city to continually update the data base. But the board said it had yet to work out all the bugs in the new system.

That leaves City Council unwilling to pass any laws until the tax-revision board can provide numbers showing the effect of a full-value system, said Brian Abernathy, spokesman for Frank DiCicco, whose First District is expected to be among those hardest hit by increased assessments. The district includes parts of South Philadelphia, Center City and the Delaware River waterfront.

"We need to have solid data before we can make any rational decision," Abernathy said.

In the interim, the board sent out notices in August to 413,000 property owners - about 70 percent of all properties in the city - that they were being reassessed, with 94 percent of those facing increased assessments and taxes.

The result of those notices is a forecast $43 million to $46 million in increased city revenues, with 60 percent of it going to the school district.

About 5,300 property owners appealed their new assessments, said Michael Piper, an assessment supervisor at tax-revision board.

At least four other people yesterday reiterated Mandel's protest that no reassessments were valid until they were applied uniformly across the city. Some followed Mandel's urging on his Philadelphia Forward Web site; others came to the board hearing room at 601 Walnut St. on their own.

Several, like Mandel, said they didn't mind paying higher taxes as long as the system was fair.

"Whether I win or lose is not going to break the bank," said Andrew Terhune, who asked the board to rescind its reassessment of his property at 2024 Pine St. until the city had gone to full value.