NUTTER: Real Estate Tax

a. The full-value project of the BRT should be matched by a proportional reduction in the millage rate. The BRT’s current fractional assessment (0.32 of BRT assessed value) would thus require a rate reduction to approximately one-third the current millage rate of 0.08264, in order to be revenue neutral.

b. A three-year average would introduce some buffering, but we should simply have an outcomes-based rather than process-based rule. Please see below.
c. First, I will propose and work with City Council to enact a homestead exemption that will exclude some fraction of assessed value from taxation for all property owners. The value of the exemption will be calculated to have minimal impact on overall revenue generated by the property tax and will make the property tax progressive. Second. I will propose and work with City Council to enact a cap and deferral plan for paying property taxes that will protect property owners from unreasonably large and rapid increases in their taxes. Under my plan, no property owner would ever face an increase in their property tax exceeding 10 percent in a single year. Property owners who qualify on the basis of low and/or fixed incomes would have lower caps, including zero increases for very low-income owners. In all cases, the amount of tax owed by the property owner above the capped amount would be deferred until the sale of the property. This two-part reform will allow people to participate in the enormous appreciation in property values underway in many Philadelphia neighborhoods while preserving peoples’ option to stay for as long as they want.

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