"They're going to have to take some decisive action, because right now the BRT doesn't have any credibility, and that means people are going to lack confidence in the whole property-tax system," political consultant Larry Ceisler said in an interview.
Nutter spent yesterday plotting his next steps.
A longtime critic of the BRT, Nutter proposed getting rid of the agency more than six years ago, when he was still a councilman.
Yesterday, though, his administration was unwilling to say quite yet what reforms they had in mind. "City Council and I are in agreement that substantial change is needed at the BRT," Nutter said through a spokesman.
Councilman Bill Green was not content to wait. He released copies of a bill that, if adopted, would disband the BRT and split its functions three ways. As an alternative, Green has drawn up a bill that would keep the agency intact but give the mayor and City Council the power to appoint BRT board members - instead of the city judges who now do so.
His proposals were assailed by BRT spokesman Kevin Feeley, who argued that it would be dangerous to give the mayor and City Council - who set property-tax rates - even indirect authority over the assessors who set property values.
"Those who believe that the property-valuation system can be fixed by combining those duties under one roof should be careful what they wish for," said Feeley. "There's potential for mischief when a branch of government controls both the assessing and taxation function."
But as The Inquirer series documented, the BRT has its own history of mischief-making, reducing assessments at the request of city power brokers and serving as a jobs bank for political bosses.
And for decades, the agency's property assessments have been wildly inaccurate, creating a system wherein some property owners have paid too much, while others have paid too little.
