Coalition pushing for total system reform
By MARK McDONALD
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
For years the Board of Revision of Taxes, a publicity-shy board with an obscure name, has set the market values of all real estate in the city.
Sigh ... just imagine the fun you would have selling your property or getting a mortgage or a home equity loan if the opening statement to the article was even half true!!!!!
I think that various people on this list would assert that the Market Value of a property is NOT set by any government agency, but by agreement between buyer and seller.
Now the "Appraised Value" is a different story.
The problem with the system in the city is the fact that the "Appraised Value" never tracks, let alone is modified by, the actual "Market Value" of a property as certified buy a sale. Each and every time a property is sold, the BRT has an exact and accurate valuation of the property -- however the law, as defined by the State Legislature and City Council, prohibit them from modifying individual property valuations when a property is sold -- the various statutes only permit them to modify properties in an area.
You bet everybody is jumping on the bandwagon -- Your favorite Democratic Mayor now running for Governor has pledged to make this Philadelphia Solution apply statewide! As America's Mayor, he knows how important it is to have a capricious and a arbitrary scheme for collecting taxes -- and will do nothing to eliminate, let alone reform it.
The City Controller is the only one whose scheme, which is far from perfect, may ever see the light of legislation.
William H. Magill
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
