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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Nutter forms committee to overhaul tax system
Nutter spoke to the Chamber of Commerce about taxes
Link: Nutter says new overhaul of Phila. taxes ahead [Inky]

The task force's charge: to create a plan outlining what must happen to make Philadelphia a less-expensive city in which to do business. The city, he said, has a higher tax burden than any other major U.S. city except New York.

"It's time for change, and change is coming very soon," Nutter promised as he delivered a 30-minute speech at a luncheon with 1,500 regional business leaders at the Philadelphia Marriott in Center City. The event was sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

"Our efforts to reform Philadelphia must continue despite the economic environment," Nutter said before signing an executive order creating the 15-member task force.

The mayor has not appointed any of its members, but said he hoped to select professionals with business or government backgrounds. No elected officials would be permitted to serve on the panel.

The task force will hold two hearings and issue a report to the mayor by Sept. 14.
Posted by Ben Waxman @ 4:51 PM  Permalink | 2 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:28 PM, 02/11/2009
    We can't keep pretending that the data collected on wage tax and business tax cuts isn't real. When taxes are too high, or higher than the surrounding areas that we compete with, cutting business and wage taxes improves the economy. We simply have to transition to a better property tax system that is based on real time values. We can collect overdue property taxes -- it's a simple matter of merging databases of comparative sales values with the databases of liens against city property. If the first is greater than the second, automatically collect the overdue money if the property is vacant or empty, and start proceedings to collect if it is not that gives the owner a chance to catch up, but sets clear deadlines to pay. Property taxes can't be like the water and gas bill used to be in Philly. Here's the city's own info that shows that half a billion in revenue could potentially be collected if the city stopped trying to stop sheriff sales of properties with tax liens: http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:35 PM, 02/11/2009
    Every year wage taxes were cut, I believe Inman wrote today that 2,500 new jobs were created in Philly. Property taxes are just a more reliable source of steady revenue anyway. It's a myth that Philly property doesn't have value -- have you tried to buy a house here? Any property that is auctioned unless it is in the very dregs of where renovation has been able to go, is valuable, and plenty of rough neighborhoods are the smart buy, because a little investment goes a long way in building your equity. Philly is not like NV, Phoenix, or parts of CA. It's a sound bet for real estate investment, but only if the city stops being an obstacle to that investment by not foreclosing on what it is owed, cutting critical services instead, like police, fire, libraries, and schools. That is criminal neglect when buyers just want to buy the loads of empty houses here that are just sitting in interminable probate, or the owners are dead. It's up to the city to weed the garden and grow the tax base. We can't have FOUR zip codes where over 40% of all owners are not paying property taxes, EIGHT zip codes where over 30% of all owners are not paying, and SEVEN zip codes where over 20% of all owners are not paying property taxes. That is COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS. Here's the city's own data: http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/delinqbyzip/index_html?skey=pcent&rkey=pcent
    — CleanupPhilly


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