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Civics, Council still pushing for explanations on AVI - and, is proposing a 1% tax rate 'pandering'?
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Civics, Council still pushing for explanations on AVI — and, is proposing a 1% tax rate 'pandering'?
Hundreds of Northern Liberties residents packed into St. Michael's Church last night to talk about the citywide reassessment of property taxes known as the Actual Value Initiative or AVI. Council President Darrell Clarke was there, along with Councilmen Mark Squilla, Jim Kenney and Bill Green. Failing to appear — as was repeatedly pointed out by the councilmembers and Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association head Matt Ruben — was a representative from the Office of Property Assessment.
Fault lines in Council unity were on display as members talked to residents about their tax-relief proposals, and heard from people who described property valuations going from $20,000 to up near $1 million. Meanwhile, Council and civic groups are still trying to extract information from the OPA about what exactly the methodology was that OPA used.
Ruben says a coalition of 20 civic groups has banded together to demand that OPA release all of the data it used. "We need to be able to understand the methods they used, and we are demanding that everyone be given 30 to 45 days from when that data is released to the public" to request a first-level review of a property assessment. "How does the average homeowner get the information and expertise to speak intelligently in this [review] meeting with OPA?"
Squilla said Council hasn't been able to extract detailed information from OPA: "During the budget process, when OPA comes in the second day of budget hearings, that's when we get our chance to actually ask them our questions," he said. So far, "all they're telling us is they used square footage, they used comp sales, they used condition of your property and data. We have a lot of questions, you guys have a lot of questions."
(In particular, residents in Northern Liberties and many other neighborhoods have expressed confusion over how properties were assessed without in-home visits. Chief Assessor Richie McKeithen says he looked at permits pulled and relied on interviews with homeowners. "Our field nowadays is more than just actually getting inside somebody's house, which the industry is moving away from because of various different reasons, like safety for one, and liability. The industry is moving more toward discussing things with the taxpayer at the door.")
The City Councilmen seemed to agree on one thing at least: The assessments have included mistakes. Even Clarke, who hasn't jumped into the community-outrage-stoking fray the way Kenney and Squilla have, agreed that some assessments just make no sense. And most said some relief for residents of gentrifying neighborhoods like Northern Liberties was important.
Beyond that, there was some disagreement. Kenney wants to dig into the budget to get the millage rate down to 1 percent or thereabouts, but says, "The mayor will try to frustrate us by cutting fire departments, cutting rec centers and cutting salaries." But the mayor's proposed rate outlined in his budget address Thursday of "1.32 percent? I'm not voting for that."
Green, on the other hand, wants to lower the overall tax rate by eliminating the homestead exemption (relief to owner-occupants), which has been set at $30,000 by City Council, but which Mayor Nutter proposed to reduce to $15,000 in his budget remarks. Green said, "1.2 percent. That's real. We can do that by eliminating the homestead exception. Any number lower than that is pure pandering."
Green has yet another concern: His analyses show that many areas of the city are severely underassessed, which means that if OPA ups their assessments next year, the city could see a windfall. "They'll collect another $30 million, $50 million, $70 million, without creating a higher quote-unquote tax rate."
Yesterday's disrupted budget hearings didn't exactly soothe residents' worries. Frank Maimone, who lives in the neighborhood and owns Rustica, a pizzeria, warned Council that the tax burden would drive away the very residents who helped turn Northern Liberties around. "I'm a block away from a methadone clinic that sends junkies down my street all day and you guys think I'm a millionaire. … There may be this illusion that we're loaded with money here, but we're working stiffs. Do you guys want to be mayors of the next Detroit? Because people like me that do have a little bit of means, they're getting out of here. There comes to a tipping point. when you get to that point and the value is no longer there."
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