AS IF THE CITY’S attempt to update its property-tax system wasn’t enough of a mess — the Actual Value Initiative to have property-tax bills bear some relation to the actual value of property has been marred by confusion and delayed by uncertainty — we now have the specter of Harrisburg trying to "help."

We say "help" because recent proposals by state Sen. Larry Farnese and state Rep. Brendan Boyle, while well-intentioned, are the kind of help you might get from a squeegee man: You didn’t ask for it, and it usually leaves the windshield muddier than ever.

Farnese and Boyle are upset about Mayor Nutter’s proposal to collect $94 million more in property taxes through AVI for the cash-strapped school district. The administration refuses to call this a "tax increase" because, it says, the city will just capture an increase in property value that it hasn’t collected for years.

Many Philadelphians aren’t impressed by this logic. An increase in their taxes, to them, is a tax increase. Farnese and Boyle agree, and have independently proposed requiring that the city make AVI revenue-neutral, meaning it would collect the same amount in property taxes after the reassessment, even if the burden is distributed differently. Should the city still want to give money to the district, it would have to do so separately, by either hiking taxes (and acknowledging it) or cutting services.

Farnese’s proposal is an amendment to a Senate bill giving the city permission to adjust the property-tax rate, without which AVI probably can’t happen. Boyle’s proposals would also be attached to AVI-related bills.

We get the argument that AVI shouldn’t be used to increase the property-tax take. If the schools need more money — and they do — the mayor and school leaders should come before the public and make a forthright case that someone has to pay for education in Philadelphia.

But when it comes to these proposals, the ends don’t justify the means. The state granting the city permission to change its property-tax rate should be a technicality, not an occasion for state legislators to insert themselves into a city debate. Especially when you consider that the reason the city needs the state’s permission to change the tax is due to a technicality in a law intended to prevent Philadelphia from reducing contributions to the district.

The state AVI proposals are just the latest example of what you might call State Takeover Theory, which holds that Pennsylvania can govern Philadelphia better than Philadelphia can. But there’s precious little evidence of this. The most prominent Pennsylvania takeover of a Philadelphia entity was the school district, in 2001, to shore up its finances. Yes, that’s the same school district that is broke and begging the city for $94 million. (And don’t get us started on the Parking Authority, taken over in 2001).

The district is in this predicament partly because of education cuts from Harrisburg. Philly Democrats like Farnese and Boyle didn’t make those cuts. But as state legislators, the best thing they can do for Philadelphia is persuade the state to do better by the city. If they focused their energy on state government, they might not have to worry about a city tax hike. Instead of "helping" Philadelphia, Harrisburg would do better to help itself.

This editorial originally appeared in the Daily News.

JONATHAN Katzenbach has a love-hate relationship with his neighborhood basketball court. Katzenbach, who lives across from the court at Marian Anderson Recreation Center in the Graduate Hospital area, says he loves having the court so close. He’s shot some hoops there in the past.

But when the sun goes down, it’s a different story. The gate to the court has been broken for months — half of the gate’s door is missing — and there are large gaps in the surrounding fence. So people enter and play at all hours.

Katzenbach says he’s been awakened numerous times at 3 or 4 a.m. from the sounds of people on the courts. Kids and adults both use the courts past midnight, he says, and it’s much more frequent in warm weather. When it happens, he calls the cops.

Katzenbach’s not the only one who has bouncing basketballs ringing in his ears. Parks and Recreation Commissioner Susan Slawson, who oversees the city’s recreation centers and worked in the Police Department for 20 years, says late-night play in residential neighborhoods has been an issue for as long as she can remember.

The department tries to deal with the problem by equipping court lights with a timer so that they turn off around 10 p.m., Slawson says. If that doesn’t work, the problem falls to the police, but Slawson is quick to add that it’s also the community’s responsibility to make sure the courts are being used at proper times.

Residents who live near the basketball court at Seger Park in Washington Square West found a particularly effective way to deal with the issue. Since the light-timers weren’t making a difference, neighbors decided to go after the hoops. About six or seven years ago, the Seger Park Advisory Council and the park’s recreation leader agreed that the rims would come down when the leader closed the park at night, said April Gamache Meidt, president of the advisory council.

Regional district manager Paul Dignam, who manages recreation centers in parts of South Philly and West Philly, says there were so many complaints about late-night play that the city thought that taking down the rims would lessen the burden on police. But this approach won’t work everywhere, he says, because special removable rims are required. Dignam said he thought the advisory council raised money to purchase the rims, though we couldn’t find anyone to confirm this.

As for Katzenbach’s case, Dignam said he put in a work order to get the gate fixed. Still, he said, "it’s not foolproof." The gate could just as easily break again, or kids could climb over the fence.

WORSE THAN NOISE: Basketball, because of recent high-profile incidents, also has officials concerned about another community issue: violence. Last summer, six people were injured in a shooting during an adult basketball game at Kingsessing Recreation Center. Kingsessing’s recreation leader Steve Smith says the center has suspended adult basketball leagues for one year in order to re-evaluate.

"It’s a centerpiece to our programming," he says, "but we have to think about the kids and the neighborhood. We want people to feel safe." Smith says the center is also holding games earlier in the day, in hopes of attracting smaller crowds.

In response to incidents last summer, Slawson says there’s been a push to provide the Police Department with schedules of all the city’s basketball games. It’s up to the district commanders if they send cops to the games, says police spokesman Lt. Ray Evers.

Slawson says the city hasn’t decreased the number of summer basketball leagues. Parks and Recreation manages about 70 youth basketball leagues and also gives permits to adults to organize their own leagues. One of these adults is Kenyatta Bey, who has started the Point Breeze Youth Development Basketball League in 1988. Bey, who runs the program at Chew Playground, says the league helps to keep young people occupied in the summer months and teaches them "how to deal with one another."

With 42 teams and about 700 kids involved last summer, the games can get big — and rowdy. But Bey says he doesn’t tolerate any nonsense: "If I see something possibly brewing, I address it." He uses a PA system to keep things under control, and he’ll escort people off the court if he has to.

Yesterday, Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sanchez introduced a resolution calling on the School Reform Commission to reach a settlement with the blue-collar union SEIU Local 32BJ District — or else Council will delay its decision on school funding.

The resolution, which 10 other Council members have signalled they support, also demands more funding from Harrisburg.

Council is currently mulling Mayor Nutter's plan to give an additional $94 million to the school district while overhauling the city's property-tax system.

This follows a massive rally against the school district's proposals to restructure schools and potentially lay off thousands of blue-collar employees.

Sanchez's resolution isn't the only issue that could hold up the city's budget, which is supposed to be passed by June 1 (though the more crucial deadline is July 1).

Nutter needs state lawmakers to pass a bill allowing the city to adjust its millage rate, which is used to calculate property-tax bills. But they haven't yet, and some lawmakers have criticized Nutter's plan.

Next week should be pretty interesting.

For years, critics have said that Philadelphia's court system does a lousy job of getting convicts to pay restitution for victims of crimes. In the story below, read about how five victims have discovered just how true that can be — even when city workers were the perpetrators.

And listen to the story on WHYY here. 

Nine city workers who were supposed to be cleaning up neighborhoods instead ransacked homes in Northeast Philadelphia between 2006 and 2008, stealing cash, guns, family heirlooms, furniture and TVs while on the job. Last year they pleaded guilty to the crime.

A grand-jury report said the former workers, who were assigned to the Community Life Improvement Program (CLIP), "used their jobs as a license to steal the entire contents of houses" and were "abetted by a total lack of oversight." Many were tossed in jail.

But this tale is far from over. Common Pleas Judge Sandy Byrd ordered the convicts to pay more than $108,000 in restitution to five victims of their crime spree. So far, they’ve paid only about a quarter of that, and the victims are furious.

Continue reading the article.

Is Harrisburg going to kill Mayor Nutter’s property-tax plan?

Today, Council is yet again debating Nutter’s plan to reform the broken property-tax system and raise an additional $94 million for the school district in the process. But Nutter needs Harrisburg to pass several bills before he can push through his proposal. A crucial one would let the city adjust its millage rate, which is used to calculate property-tax bills.

At a hearing this morning, Council members Bill Greenlee and Mark Squilla asked the administration what the back-up plan is if Harrisburg balks.

“If we don’t get that ability to lower the millage, what do we do then?” asked Greenlee. “We’re hearing that there’s problems in Harrisburg with that.”

Rob Dubow, the city’s finance director, admitted, “That’s a real problem.” He added that the administration is trying to figure out what to do if Harrisburg doesn’t pass the bill.

“We are trying to consider options,” he said. “Getting that is crucial.”

Last week, “It’s Our Money” reported that state Sen. Larry Farnese is planning to propose an amendment to the bill that would allow the city to adjust its property-tax rate. The amendment would bar the city from collecting more money for the school district from the reassessment process itself. If the amendment passes, Council would probably have to vote on the property-tax overhaul and school funding separately.

Farnese’s communications director Cameron Kline said the bill likely hasn’t moved forward simply because legislators are sorting through a complex issue.

LAST YEAR, Rachel Shapiro had a dispute with a contractor and took her case to Common Pleas Court. She lost.

She appealed the decision to Superior Court, and then … nothing happened. The case hasn’t moved forward, and it’s been 15 months.

What’s causing the holdup? Common Pleas Judge James Murray Lynn.

When someone appeals a judge’s decision, the judge must provide a written explanation, called an opinion, for the appeal to proceed. The opinion is due 60 days after an appeal is filed.

Lynn, after ruling against Shapiro, has kept this appeal on hold for more than a year. Not that Shapiro should take it personally: According to court records, Lynn has two other unwritten opinions holding up appeals that have been sitting on his desk for 12 months and 15 months, respectively.

Even the opinions he has written recently have taken him a while to get to: The two he wrote this year were both due in early 2011. And the two he wrote in 2011 took him nine months and 18 months, respectively

Other judges don’t take this long. We randomly checked the records of 16 of 32 Common Pleas judges who hear civil cases. Most took about two to three months on average to file opinions. A few took four to five months.

This week, the People's Board takes on the question of vacant land in the city, and what could or should be done about it. And on this week's It's Our Money podcast, People's Board member Kiki Bolender (speaking for herself!) talks to us about some of the proposals being considered by the city.

This should be fun.

Tonight at about 7:45 p.m., the Center City Residents' Association is hosting a panel discussion on the city's proposed property-tax overhaul. I'll be the panel, along with Chris Satullo, WHYY's VP for news and civic engagement; Brett Mandel, a taxpayer advocate and former City Controller candidate; and Lewis Rosman, Mayor Nutter's legislative affairs director.

It will take place at the Academy of Vocal Arts, located at 1920 Spruce Street. The event is open to the public, so feel free to come and heckle us ask smart questions.

Despite what Joseph Heller’s famous protagonist Capt. John Yossarian thinks, you can escape a Catch-22. Just ask Philadelphia resident Evelyn Piner.

In February, “It’s Our Money” reported on legal advocates arguing that Philadelphia’s court system, the First Judicial District, is unjustly saddling people with large debts they don’t actually owe. The problem, critics say, is that many of the court’s records are deeply flawed.

We spoke with several debtors, including Piner. She was stuck in a Catch-22. Last year, the First Judicial District sent her a letter saying she owed $900 in forfeited bail for skipping a hearing in early 1990. But that didn’t make sense, she said, because she was in prison at the time. Plus, a 1993 letter from her former probation officer stated that she was “not in any type of violation or bad standing.”

A court administrator told Piner that her fines couldn't be completely waived unless she could document that she was incarcerated, according to her attorney from Community Legal Services.

But Piner couldn’t prove that she was in prison during the hearing because all the prisons system’s documents prior to 1991 have been destroyed.

Now, she has broken free from the Catch-22.

In April, the First Judicial District rescinded all of her bail debts, after Piner challenged them.

Piner is pleased.

“I think I’ve earned it,” she says.

Deputy court administrator Dominic Rossi could not immediately say why Piner’s debts have been wiped clean. But, generally speaking, he says the First Judicial District is now being more lenient with people who can reasonably explain that they were incarcerated at the time of a hearing prior to 1991.

“If they’re alleging that, for anything before 1991, they were incarcerated [and] if we have no records whatsoever … then we will take them at their word,” Rossi says.

Rossi stresses that this doesn’t mean that just anyone can claim that they were in prison at the time of a hearing.

Following the “It’s Our Money” report, the First Judicial District also enacted reforms earlier this year to make it easier for people to challenge court debts they believe are inaccurate.