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Actual Value Initiative: We need numbers - and soon

WHEN CITY Council does its own version of back-to-school this week, members will have to grapple with homework left over from last semester - a complicated math assignment called Actual Value Initiative (AVI), which is supposed to restore fairness to the city's property-tax system.

WHEN CITY Council does its own version of back-to-school this week, members will have to grapple with homework left over from last semester - a complicated math assignment called Actual Value Initiative (AVI), which is supposed to restore fairness to the city's property-tax system.

AVI, which will tax properties based on more accurate assessments instead of the old way of taxing based on political favors or guessing, came close to being enacted in June. But Council ultimately balked at having to establish a tax rate without seeing the new values, which the Nutter administration hadn't finished.

The word from the administration is that it is delayed again; technical issues require assessors to go back out into the field to refine the work. The administration was unable to pinpoint when they will come, just that the numbers will be available to Council before it has to craft the next budget.

In other words, the AVI nightmare continues: another season of rumor, panic and stress filling the void where the facts should be. The delay will not only shorten the time Council has to nail down AVI, but it will increase the anxiety people already have about the uncertainty of their tax obligations. The delay also means that a heavy political lift is going to get heavier, since AVI will have to be enacted closer to an election season, with a looming primary race for mayor.

Tax bills based on the old system will be going out at the end of the year, and there may be concern that new values being released at the same time may confuse people. It's better to have confusion over facts than panic and anxiety over the unknown.

Both Council and taxpayers should be keeping the pressure on the administration to get the new property values released. In the meantime, there's plenty Council can do. Councilman Bill Green wants to hold hearings on the city's entire tax structure, which needs serious reform. We hope President Darrell Clarke, who has shown he has the attention span to dig deep on an issue, will give this serious attention.