Philly property owners flood city phone lines about assessments
From Monday through 3 p.m. today, the Office of Property Assessment (OPA) received 3,200 calls and voicemails, a substantially higher volume of calls than usual, said mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald.
Philly property owners flood city phone lines about assessments
Jan Ransom
Philadelphia land owners took to the phone lines shortly after property assessments were released Friday and after receiving notices in the mail --some say their properties were over assessed.
From Monday through 3 p.m. today, the Office of Property Assessment (OPA) received 3,200 calls and voicemails, a substantially higher volume of calls than usual, said mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald. The increased number of calls came as thousands of property owners got notices from the city detailing what their properties are worth under the new property-tax system based on market values known as the Actual Value Initiative.
City Councilman Mark Squilla's office received 30 calls today, the most AVI-related calls to a Council office. Squilla's 1st district includes Center City, Northern Liberties, parts of South Philly and Fishtown, some of the hardest hit neighborhoods. Squilla plans to challenge the assessments and believes that OPA made some mistakes.
If you feel your property has been assessed too high or low, you should file a first level review with OPA. If you're still not happy, you can file an appeal with the Board of Revision of Taxes (BRT).
Comments (32)
- let me guess. you happily voted for tax-and-spend democrats like rendell, street and nutter, though? then stop whining like a child. the chickens have come home to roost
people get the government they deserve— hannibal barca 
Nutter is salivating at the prospects of hiring even MORE patronage workers for the massive numbers of tax appeal cases we'll now get. Could it be they deliberately caused this mess just to hire more drones to "clean it up"?— The Monk- I wouldn't doubt it. Remeber when Nutter and his crew claimed they'd hire "outside assessors" ( I guess with our tax dollars) to fight us with OPA and BRT as their clients. If you have the gall to go to Common Pleas and spend another minimum of $250. their paid "assassins" will be assigned to slug it out with us there too. What a "no lose" situation for the City. It is Orwell's "Animal Farm" come true... — oblekr
- Figure this 2 properties sold for 140,000 on my block and our new assement is 250,000 for everyone on the block more than a thousand dollars more in taxes, how did they come up with that...I wish I could sell for 250,000!!! I will appeal!!! people stop voting these democrates in this city back in office!!!— dianeoc
- @Chefdummi
I am not paying it, they have hiked taxes on property 3x, I refuse this time. Nutter is out of hand, we can not continue to be taxed at every chance. People REFUSE TO PAY IT, they can not arrest all of us— Iknowyourider - @chefyummi Ok pay your fair share I agree 95% of this city voted for Obama so you get what you voted for from the president to city council to the mayor. What you are missing is the fact that you can't get out of paying your federal taxes so if they raise them on the rich you pretty much got to renounce your citizenship but you can move out of the city to avoid the wage tax reduced if you work in city and none if you don't work in the city and high property taxes. What happens when the people actually making money that are left don't live in the city anymore it becomes Cleveland, Detroit, Baltimore, Birmingham and this has been happening for 50 years now already and Philly is broke.— PhillySM
- I paid 42k in 2011. it was assessed at 99k. are you kidding me? apparrently painting walls doubles your hme value— write me in
- "If you feel your property has been assessed at too high or too low, you should file a first level review with OPA." Wonder why you would request a review if your assessment is too low?— Pugh
- The concept of AVI is fine and valid. It's just a means of figuring out how much the place is worth - it will have its warts, but those can be ironed out.
The problem is that people on here need to accept the fact that "society" and governments have determined that real estate is something that should be taxed on its value. Once you accept that, then it's natural that we have to assign values. Once done, it comes down to the percentage rate (which, as of now is going to be about 1.25% of the value) that will be used to hit up that value.
The problem is the percentage rate. The City politicians spend wastefuly in two ways - on the things that citizens (the ones who voted for them) say they want, and are prepared to scream like banshees if they're taken away (e.g., support for the Mummers Parade, senior centers, fireworks on July 4th, 50% more shchools and fire houses than any other City our size would have or that any study would say are needed, etc.).
What citizens need to do is direct their elected officials to cut out spending on unnessary programs and cut back benefits for its workforce so they're no longer better than the private sector and then cut taxes across the board - wage, real estate, transfer, BIRT, NPT, etc.
The people of this City need to vote in some fiscal conservatives, but that isn't going to happen - the unions and the city employees and those on welfare are going to vote what they perceive is there self-interests - regardless of how short-sighted other people may think they're being.
It is going to get a lot worse in Philadelphia - the liability for the Pension and Retiree medical alone is understated by Billions of dollars.— PhillyDanny - WE NEED AVI! Thank you Mayor Nutter and City Council for doing the right thing. I've been paying $1350 in taxes on a rowhome in South Philly. According to an article recently posted a lady has been paying barely $300 on a home identical to mine. THIS IS RIDICULOUS and UNFAIR! This has been going on for years and its about time things get evened out. PAY YOUR FAIR SHARE!!— Lebron
- I'm not concerned about my fair share, my house has lost $150,000 in value but everyone in my neghborhood is in the same scenerio. I'm more concenred that the estimated value will now affect my selling price when someone pulls that up. I also do not agree with the largest proportion of tax revenue spending....17% of my real estate taxes go to the Pension Fund. Why do we still have a pension fund when you have the ability of having a savings account, 401k, IRA, Roth IRA, etc....— PhillyNewsGal
- I really wonder about how the amount these "assessors" came up with. I own a property which was valued at less that 15K, has 2 abandoned houses across the street that are falling down, an abandoned house 2 doors up from my property, vacant and cluttered lot on 3 of the 4 corners and the assessors decided that my property is worth 87K. How in the hell did they come up with that figure?— cutbuddy
- The reassessments would be OK with a realistic tax rate of 1% IMO.
Then you would not have to argue anything and a homestead would not be necessary. The problem is two fold, properties valued wildy different with the same amenities and a rate that is punishment. As I posted elsewhere,if you allow a homestead exemption of 30,000 great, but dont raise the overall rate to compensate for that, you are not helping, you are just beating the same old dogs over and over again, your taxpayer residents.
Sooner or later if you beat a dog enough times he will run away to somewhere hes treated better.— Steelmanpa - So many good points. The national rate on r/e assessments is 1%. How anyone can propose a 25% increase in rates is beyond me after the 17% increase over the past four years. There is no more blood in these stones Mr. Mayor. Not one more dime UNTIL the $250,000,000 or more is collected from the deadbeats. And just saying you're going after them is not good enough. GET THE DEADBEATS first. No tax changes until that happens.
— The Monk - Cutbuddy..they probably looked at a Google photo if the block which showed the immediate homes in decent shape--hence the nightmare AVI. Just a thought--go to Google, type in your address and see how the photos look. I think they won't show the abandoned homes. but your property will "stand out" for reassessment. Also, Google the abandoned homes and let's see what happens. It's be interesting to see how the yassessed them. I'm on your side...I'm really begining to suspect the far majority of these assessors never left the office. Or, if they did, it was simply for appearance's sake. That's why so many things are showing bad results...— oblekr
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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. E-mail tips to brennac@phillynews.com
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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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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. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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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
Follow Dave on Twitter.
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. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
Follow Jan on Twitter
Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
Follow Sean on Twitter
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