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Heard in the Hall

Candidates spar over AVI

Controller Alan Butkovitz warns of tax increases, challenger Brett Mandel accuses him of "fear-mongering"

13 comments

Candidates spar over AVI

POSTED: Monday, February 18, 2013, 3:58 PM

BOB WARNER

The city’s new property tax assessments are becoming an issue in the city controller’s race, with incumbent Alan Butkovitz warning that upwards of 60 percent of Philadelphia homeowners are likely to face tax increases and challenger Brett Mandel accusing Butkovitz of “fear-mongering.”
“A lot of very poor areas of the city, places like Germantown and Juniata Park, are seeing big increases,” Butkovitz said Monday. “A lot of people in the city will be pushed out of their homes.”

Mandel said his family’s own taxes, on the southwest side of Center City, may come close to doubling, depending on rates and relief programs yet to be established by City Council.
“We’ve known since we bought the house that the city was under-taxing us, dramatically,” Mandel said. “We aren’t happy to pay more but we know that fairness matters, accuracy matters.…We need a system that assigns correct values to our real estate.”

Butkovitz accused Mandel of being “a shill for the business community,” estimating that the reassessment would lead to a $200 million reduction in commercial real estate taxes, while the tax burden would shift to residential homeowners.

If annual real estate taxes were set at 1.25 percent of the new market values, 60 percent of Philadelphia homeowners would see higher tax bills next year compared to what they’re paying now, Butkovitz said. If City Council establishes homestead exemptions or other relief programs to ease the impact on low-income citizens, it will drive the overall rates higher, meaning higher tax bills for up to 80 percent of residents, Butkovitz said.

Mandel suggested a system of tax deferrals that would not have to be paid off until people sell their homes. “Then nobody would be forced to do anything they don’t want to do,” he said.
Mandel, 44, a former aide to controller Jonathan Saidel, Butkovitz’s predecessor, spoke after formally announcing his candidancy in front of Germantown High School, one of three dozen schools targeted for closure because of the School District’s ongoing budget crisis.

Butkovitz announced his candidacy last week in a function room at the Sheraton Hotel, filled with dozens of elected officials, Democratic ward leaders and labor leaders. Pat Gillespie, business manager for the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, acted as MC, with introductory remarks from state Sen. Michael Stack, City Council president Darrell Clarke and John Dougherty, business manager of the electrical workers union.

Mandel had 15 supporters – one identifying himself as a Democratic committeeman – standing in the cold outside Germantown High, holding light blue placards describing Mandel as a “budget bulldog.” His mother, Sharyn Dershowitz, handled the introduction.

13 comments

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Comments (13)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:24 PM, 02/18/2013

Attention Brett Mandel: It's not fear mongering if it's true. The citizens of Philly that actually pay their taxes are having to bend over and take it for the 3rd year in a row. But notice how those last 2 temporary taxes were not allowed to expire. The Dems need to be voted out of office but it seems that the Reps won't have any real challengers running once again this election year. It's truely sad that the Rep party has abandoned us in Philly.

— Taxpaying Voter

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:03 PM, 02/18/2013

I like Mendel's chances...Gillespie, Clarke, and Dougherty have nothing on being introduced by your own mother. It's funny but also sad, we're still not at the point of electing anyone who wants real change.

— Hunter S. T

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:36 AM, 02/23/2013

Real change ... Be careful what you wish for. So-called progressive Democrats tend to fall back on an outdated and paternalistic argument that AVI is 'fair' and there is something wrong with you if you are alarmed and upset by a 3X higher property tax bill. So push them to justify, with real numbers and evidence, why the city is justified in crushing its middle class residents with this onerous tax hike/penalty.
So-called progressive democrats also tend to conveniently ignore political realities such as people won't be able to afford this increase. Watch them as they return to the 'but its fair' argument, which is -- in the light of flawed assessments and other clear problems with this new tax scheme-- a vague and meaningless argument.

— 5th WardCommitteeperson

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:05 PM, 02/18/2013

These people in these neighborhoods are now going to pay their fair share of property taxes, they have been paying nada and are getting the same services as a homeowner paying 5 grand a year in taxes, these people have 5 -6 kids in the public schools and pay 400 bucks a year in property taxes, time to be responsible and pay your fair share, im sick of paying for the free loading class in this city!!! GUESS YOUR GONNA HAVE TO GET RID OF THAT I-PHONE AND GET A REGULAR CELL PHONE LIKE ME!!! FRIGGIN FREELOADING CREEPS!!

— wallycleaver

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 8:45 PM, 02/18/2013

Of course the burden is shifting to the home owners. The business climate in the city is forcing companies out of the city. Someone has to pay. Keep voting Democrat Philly!!!!

— jimday

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:03 PM, 02/18/2013

I suppose Mr.Mandel has the wherewithal to come up with the doubled property taxes? Mr. Butkovitz, on the other hand, while he may also have the money to pay extra realizes that many resident's DO NOT. It's not fear-mongering, it's fact. People aren't going to have the money for these increases, they're not going to pay or they're going to do what they can to pay and try to sell and get the heck out. Which of course will drive real estate prices down ... so on top of the over assessment we'll have a real estate "depression" of over-valued, over-taxed housing that no one will want.

To wallycleaver ... you know you assume a lot. You assume that people are living large, paying $400 a year and have 5 or 6 kids in public school.

How about the single responsible bought within their means homeowner in an area that is "mixed" and the only thing that makes the area "hot" is the stupid catchment for a lah-de-dah grade school (that there's no longer any guarantee of getting your child into anymore). Said single homeowner has ZERO children and is currently paying close to $3k a year in taxes. Guess what, it's going to be close to doubled next year. Think that can be afforded? It can't and this person has a decent job.

In the meantime Liberty Place, Franklin Mills and who knows how many other big business/corporations are going to get nice fat tax cuts. Yeah this makes absolute perfect sense to drive the middle class out with wage tax, now ridiculous increased property value (still have no clue how any of these valuations were done, they're all over the place - on the same block!) and these insane property tax hikes. People will be taking a hike ... right out of the city.

— annoyed

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:16 PM, 02/18/2013

I just looked at 3 commercial properties that were assigned values 100% over fair market value.This is a disaster in the making.The homeowners who are under the 10 year tax abatement program didn't have their market values adjusted.Time to eliminate this giveaway deal.
Look for a lot more real estate coming on the market in the next few months.

— chrisartur

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:24 PM, 02/18/2013

the 10 year abatement is supposedly a way to get developers to build. Like we need more luxury condos, right? We don't need real, human, affordable housing, noooo. We need million dollar condos that the city was assessing at $71,000 and now the Rittenhouse Sq. condo owners are seeing AVI of $4MIL and $50,000 tax bills. Honestly? I'm sorry I don't really feel horrible for them. They bought for millions, they have money. The City screwed up BIG TIME with value (again, where did those numbers come from?).

It's the working class, true middle class, pays their bills, bought a house to spend most of their lives in, maybe think about selling when they retire and downsize and now they're going to have to sell and start over somewhere else because they're not going to be able to afford to stay in their homes. This stinks to high heaven. Philly is going to be the graveyard of real estate it was 30 years ago.

— annoyed

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 12:10 AM, 02/19/2013

What are you talking about? The 10-year tax abatement is not just for luxury condos, it's for all housing construction, AND it's for rehabbing old homes.

You don't have a clue as to the facts. And no, I do NOT have a tax abatement. Wish I did. But the first of those houses will soon start paying those taxes on the new or renovated construction (they have been paying on the land value all along).

— Tatt2

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:11 AM, 02/19/2013

There should be a lot of people sparring over this disgrace after business starts today. A few rotten eggs tossed here, a rotten tomato or two there, - maybe even a bloody nose for a Council Person or two.
It's about time to join the people voting with their feet. Philly will look good in the rear view mirror as the reflection grows smaller.

— bad joe s

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:24 AM, 02/19/2013

vote against any incumbant....it's the only thing they understanding.

— Anthony Palmer

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:21 AM, 02/23/2013

Property taxes are a throwback to earlier times when many people ran businesses out of their houses. Today, our homes are an "unrealized asset" so taxing their value to finance a city is problematic, at best. Also, consider the wildly under and over valued property assessments, numbers for a process that does not inspire confidence that AVI is more fair than the tax scheme it hopes to replace. Finally, none of our elected officials who are hot for AVI have made a compelling and more importantly CLEAR case for the need to double and triple the property taxes for home owning citizens in Philly's more desirable neighborhoods (folks, some of us worked very hard to improve our neighborhoods, why punish us for your increased property value), while giving rental properties and commercial properties with the same need for garbage collection and police protection a nice break on paying their property taxes. AVI still isn't ready -- appeal your assessment and pressure your elected officials to put the brakes on this horrible tax increase and get it right -- because once your taxes go up, they ain't gonna go back down! Let's not let 'fair' become a 4 letter word in Philadelphia. And let's NOT kill the golden goose ....

— 5th WardCommitteeperson