|
|
|
How AVI will impact City Council
An analysis of how the Actual Value Initiative will affect the very people in charge of hashing out the details of the tax reform process.
How AVI will impact City Council
Last month, along with the release of tax assessments tallied as part of the Actual Value Initiative, Mayor Nutter sent out a spreadsheet of how the tax reform would affect his property and those of top staffers. Among other results, it appeared that Nutter stands to save a not-insubstantial amount of money. Given some dissent in City Council over how to proceed with AVI, we thought, "Why not go a step further and look at how AVI would affect every single council member?"
So, guess what we did?
|
*Note: Jannie Blackwell's second property is listed in italics to indicate that she does not list this address as her primary residence.
And yes, before anyone asks, all of the councilmembers are up to date on their property taxes (no code violations, either!). Well, almost.
Anyway, the results, which assume Nutter's proposed 1.32 percent tax rate and $15,000 homestead exemption, seem to resemble the theoretical impact of AVI citywide at first glance, or at least how the impact is often presented by City Hall: some members' tax bills go up, some go down, and a handful stay the same. In the end everything sort of equals out. Well, almost. Together, the legislators would contribute $51,537 to the city's property tax rolls under AVI, about 6.25 percent more than they will pay this year.
But things get a bit more interesting under closer inspection. In addition to Mark Squilla's abberant tax abatement, which would drive down his tax bill by nearly one third while his neighbors' almost triple, several other legislators will see big savings under AVI.
Bobby Henon and Marian Tasco are just about tied for first place in the "savings" category: both would see nearly $1,400 come off their respective $2,800 and $3,800 tax bills. For Tasco, this is almost certainly an example of AVI "working," as Cedarbrook has seen precipitous declines in population and property values. Neither responded to requests from City Paper for comment.
But not everyone has it so easy. The biggest loser, in an absolute sense, is Bill Greenlee, whose already high $3,350 tax bill on his Fairmount rowhome will jump $1,550, more than anyone else's. But Greenlee was already paying a lot to live in a relatively upscale neighborhood. The biggest relative increases, and those that are most indicitive of the potential havoc AVI could wreak on gentrifying fringe neighborhoods, were seen by María Quiñones-Sánchez and Darrell Clarke. Both have tax bills that would more than double the taxes they pay on their homes in their shared neighborhood of South Kensington.
You can read more about Sánchez's response to her rising tax bill in our print edition, also published online here.
Interestingly, one of the most striking features of this spreadsheet has nothing to do with the numbers at all, but simple geography. Philadelphia, true to its reputation as the "city of neighborhoods", has a City Council comprised completely by folks from its neighborhoods: every single legislator lives outside Center City. Even more unusual is that a full third of councilmembers actually live in just two neighborhoods: Torresdale, in the Far Northeast, and Wynnefield, on the edge of West Philly, together home to six of the 17 councilmembers.
Both have historically been retreats of the white and black upper-middle class, so perhaps it is not surprising that well-compensated city legislators would choose to settle there (along racial lines, as well). But it may be worth wondering if the clustering of many council members around the edges of the city affects their ability to represent those in its urban core.
- ActiVman
- adventures
- Arts
- Ask A Man-About-Town
- Award Tour
- Awards
- Bad Idea Factory
- Beer
- Below the Curve
- Bikes
- Booze
- Brian Hickey
- BRT
- Budget
- Budget Fuss
- Business
- Casinos
- City Council
- City Hall
- CouncilMANIC
- CP Abroad
- CP in the Community
- Criminal Justice System
- Day Tripper
- Death and Taxes
- Delaware River
- Design
- DROP
- Drugs
- Dubious Distinction
- Elections
- End of Days
- Environment
- Fashion
- Film Fest
- Financial Meltdown
- FrackTrack
- Free Library
- Gambling
- Gay Stuff
- Get Lit
- Greenstorming
- guns
- Hall Monitor
- Health
- Health Care
- Hello, Kitty
- Holidays
- Ice Cubes
- Iggles
- Immigration
- In Memoriam
- Labor
- Lawsuits
- Letters
- LGBTQ
- Maps
- Marcellus Shale
- Media
- MMA
- Mummers
- Music
- MUST READ
- Mysterious Mysteries
- Nation
- News
- Non Sequitur
- Opinion
- PA politics 2010
- Parking Wars
- Parks and Recreation
- People Send Us This Stuff
- Philadelphia Police
- Philadelphia Union
- Philaphemera
- Philly From Scratch
- philly madness
- Photos
- Poverty
- PPA
- President Obama
- Print Edition
- Prisons
- Protest
- Readers Write
- Real Estate
- Rock Bottom
- Schools
- Science
- Screwing Philly
- SEPTA
- snow
- So Lush
- Soccer
- Sporting Life
- Sports Complex
- State Politicians
- State Politics
- Street Art
- Strike
- Stuff We Like
- Taxes
- Taxi Drivers
- Tech Fetish
- television
- The Budget Crisis
- The City Paper
- The CLOG
- The Human Condition
- The Mayor
- The Phightin Phils
- The World
- Things that make you go hm
- Tinfoil Hats Off
- Under the Table
- Under the Tables
- Urban Development
- Urban Planning
- urban wildlife
- Video Poker
- We Call Shenanigans
- Weather
- Web Junk
- Weekend Omnibus
- White House
- What We've Found
- Women's Issues
- Flyered Up!
- How 'Bout That Weather?
- it's always sunny in philadelphia
- Stu!
- Shopping
- get out
- 10-track mind
- ArtsFlash
- Bloggity
- Bruce Being Bruce
- Colleges
- Comedy
- Gigantic Surprises
- Hello Canary
- Hello Puppy
- errata
- get lost
- Inside The Fishbowl
- Library Closings
- Local Support
- Movies
- Murder
- Night Moves
- Recycling
- radio
- Scientology
- Sex
- Sixers
- Skeeze Police
- State Politicians Screwing Philly
- That's a cool stencil!
- Theater
- Things We See
- This Week
- This Week in Oates
- University City
- WIN
- What we don't heart
- trailer!
- what we heart
- Feeling Guilty
- Askadelphia.
- Broke in Philly
- Contest
- Dance
- Dear Paper Doll
- Do A Good Thing
- Education
- Film Fest Schism
- G20-20 Vision
- Goodbye
- Gossip
- Great American Heroes
- PATCO
- Pearl Jam Week
- Puppy
- Stars of the Photostream
- sustainability
- Lower Merion Webcam-Gate
- The Cycle
- Equality Forum
- Bureaucrat of the Week
- Animals
- ElectionEar
- Photostream
