Philly: Real estate tax drops for 2d year; schools face $25MM deficit
Schools hurt as property taxes under $1B again in the busy season
Philadelphia real estate tax revenues slipped to $981 million in the three months ended March 31, from $991 million in early 2014 and just over $1 billion in 2013, says elected Philadelphia city controller Alan Butkowitz (corrected) in a report today. 55% of real estate tax money goes to the city public school system, which has limited taxing authority and is otherwise dependent on city and state payments.
Under that formula, schools collected $541 million from the tax so far this year; city government got the other $440 million. Most real estate taxes are collected during the first quarter. According to Butkowitz, the school faces a budget shortfall of $25 million due to lower real estate tax collections this year.
Why the drop, if housing prices and construction in neighborhoods surrounding Center City and the universities keeps rising? "The City hasn't indicated a reason as to why the real estate collections are down," controller spokesman Brian Dries told me. "Last year when the collections dropped during the same quarter, the City attributed it to the backlog in assessment appeals from the Actual Value Initiative." Still backlogged? Butkowitz wants to know more.
By contrast, combined city taxes from wages, earnings and sales are stronger this year. Read Butkowitz's report here.