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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Nutter Confronts Tax Delinquent on Sidewalk

A press conference put on by Mayor Nutter in Center City this afternoon to single out three business tax delinquents turned dramatic when one of the delinquents confronted Nutter on the sidewalk.

Nutter appeared outside an office building at Broad and Chestnut streets to announce that the city plans to go after three lawyers who owed back business taxes by seizing their business assets and selling them at a sheriff's sale. Unless the trio -- who owe a collective $350,000 -- pay up by April 2, the city will sell their stuff to get the money, Nutter said.

After the announcment, one of the lawyers in question -- Robert Gamburg -- came outside.

"Did you bother to check to see if I'm trying to make payments to the city," asked Gamburg, who also questioned why he was being singled out.

Nutter's reply: "We picked this particular place, because it’s the place that we picked...You owe the city money, pay your taxes."

Last November, Nutter launched a more aggressive effort to collect back taxes. He said today that the city has collected $2.5 million in back business taxes so far. Read more about it here.

Posted by Catherine Lucey @ 3:16 PM Permalink | 4 comments

Comments

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:25 PM, 03/11/2009

This is great, and politically critical, but the city can't get the full way by going after only BPT delinquents. The biggest lump of tax delinquents in the city, one the press is afraid of, apparently, is property tax delinquents, who owe the city $522 million. Half a billion in money that is liens against a real asset where values are holding is real money. The city has to foreclose and fix the system that is set up to collect, or simply contract out this function to a provider who can be accountable to do the work, unlikes the Dept. of Revenue, the City Law Dept.'s Real Estate Tax Unit, and the Sheriff. Cut these offices' functions on property tax collection, and contract out. Sell the overdue property tax liens for ready cash now, like Rendell did. This is real money that will go the farthest of all of the debtors towards getting the city back in black. Why is the press waiting for permission to cover this issue?

— CleanupPhilly

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:27 PM, 03/11/2009

Interestingly, PHA owes the city $500,000 in overdue property taxes. I don't see the Mayor at their offices for some reason.

— CleanupPhilly

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:35 PM, 03/11/2009

The mayor is going to have to do more than just stage some drama with one deadbeat. He has to outline a comprehensive policy of property tax and other lien debt collection for everyone. This is what is missing. People will not accept paying more in property taxes when it is well known that there is a policy of optional only property tax payment, that there are whole zip codes where over 40% of all owners are not paying, where only 30% of all city zip codes have paid property taxes so that there is only a single-digit delinquency rate. People know. People know who of their neighbors are not paying property taxes; they could make you a list. It's a great source of internecine bitterness that the city allows these owners not to pay, often on the very houses that bring down equity the most. There are four owners on my block that owe between $5,000 and $15,000 in overdue property taxes, and have been allowed to for YEARS. When does it end? When does the sheriff foreclose? Almost every block in the city has one of these properties, at least one. None of these are seniors, who pay in full and have frozen taxes, a common myth in the press. All of them are wage earners. Most are unoccupied houses, many are in probate and allowed to simply not pay while the probate is "worked out," a day that never seems to arrive. This is going to be an issue for the mayor until he makes a statement on how his administration plans to cope with the huge number of vacant or empty properties that owe overdue property taxes and never go to sheriff sale or any even private foreclosure process. This will cause vitriol from Nutter's base.

— CleanupPhilly

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:10 PM, 03/11/2009

Mayor Nutter - Your next move is over to L & I where the remaining dredges of the previous adminstration are continuing to run this department as if it is there own! For example: The Contractural Services Unit are doing curbside demolition bids, trying to impress you that the are "part of the team". Problem is Mr. Matyor and fellow taxpayers is that the Head of this Unit is a holdover from the last administration and he is still accountable for the enormous amounts of monies that were approved for a contractor still under investigation. He did nothing to stop it and now he is one of Commisioner Fran Burns confidants? His "model" is to coerce demolition contractors to unrealistically loe in an effort to demonstrate his "managerial prowess". However, this "wunderkind" in his efforts to distract the focus from his "rubber stamping" on purchase orders from 2004-2008, has cost the city money and its integrity. Many of the winners of these bids have been paying their workers in cash. Thus the city loses its city wage taxes among a host of other taxes that it is suppose to generate; not to mention that it is illegal. Many of these contractors are hiring subcontractors, who are required to have insurances, bonds, etc. in place. Since they are not registered companies, they present themselve as emplouyees of the winning bidders! No one is able to check these subcontractors, so they avoid paying the city its taxes, and securing the proper bonds, insurance, etc. They are also burning debris, performing substandard work (who cares since it is a demolition anyway?)and placing the city in harm's way legally. We are funding all of this with taxpayers' money and we are paying the "wunderkind" with our money. STOP THIS NOW MR. MAYOR BEFORE IT COMES BACK TO BITE US ALL.

— CommonSense4Philly

4 comments

About The Philly Clout Team

Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.

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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com

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Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002 and has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. After covering the 2007 mayoral election, she moved over to the City Hall bureau where she has been reporting on the Nutter administration.

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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans.

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