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Squilla's new AVI proposal: Phase it in over 4 years
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Squilla's new AVI proposal: Phase it in over 4 years
On Thursday, Councilman Mark Squilla will introduce the latest of many proposals for easing the transition to new, market-based property tax assessments known as the Actual Value Initiative or AVI. Squilla wants to phase in the new values over four years, so that those seeing increases will see their taxes grow more gradually (and those now overpaying would also see their bills shrink a bit more slowly). Squilla says he believes there's some support from this idea from the administration and City Council.
"If your property went up 500 percent or 600 percent, it would take you four years to get to that level," he says. "I don't think it's fair to do that over one year. First of all, the four years would give [the Office of Property Assessments] a chance to get all the data right, and it would slow down the shift [of the property tax burden] from commercial to residential" property owners. Because commercial owners had been paying closer to actual property values, it's expected that their share of the property tax burden will decrease, and an estimated $200 million more would be paid by residents.
He points out that the city has delayed the reassessments for years, and now expects residents to pay. "Because of the city's mistakes, we can't expect these people to make up in one year for all of their mistakes."
Talk of so-called smoothing measures was popular early last budget season, but quieted down as City Council members focused on the homestead exemption, which gives a break to all owner-occupants, and on relief for longtime residents in gentrified neighborhoods. Each relief measure put in place is estimated to raise the overall tax rate by a tenth of a percent. Squilla says he now likes the idea of a combination of a $15,000 homestead exemption (rather than the $30,000 Council voted for last year) and a gentrification protection measure, which he thinks together could have just a tenth of a percent's impact on the tax rate. He also says he'll be scrutinizing the budget for cuts to reduce the tax rate, and trying to push the administration to include $100 million in delinquent property-tax collections in its budget, a tall order in a city with around $500 million in delinquent taxes on its books.
Squilla has been telling reporters, residents, the administration and fellow City Council members he believes many of the assessments, made public Feb. 15, are far off the mark. Chief Assessor Richie McKeithen says there are challenges in making assessments in fast-changing neighborhoods, and that starting with a broken system didn't help matters. However, "We came from a system where the values weren't even remotely reflective of what the properties would sell for. We feel like the first year we got a pretty good indiciation of at least landing closer to the market value."
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