It is almost certain to be a subject at Council budget hearings, beginning Tuesday with a hearing on the 2012-16 plan. The Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, the state-appointed agency that oversees city finances and approves or rejects the five-year plan, is also interested.
"I thought it was a little surprising to see it, and I'm sure we'll get at it," said PICA member Sam Katz, a former Republican mayoral candidate who recently was appointed to the board by Gov. Corbett. "It's just one of those red flags."
What's clear is that the Nutter administration and Council leaders quietly came to an agreement last year on how they would balance the five-year plan, even though Council members would not vote for more than the two-year tax increase at 9.9 percent.
After Council approved the increase in May, following a fierce budget battle, Nutter's finance gurus adjusted their revenue projections in the 2011-15 five-year plan.
The new plan showed an average of $86 million more in property taxes coming in - not for two years, but for five.
Last year's five-year plan, prepared before the increase, projected that the city would take in about $400 million each year through 2015. This current plan projects $487 million this year, with the total rising to $507 million in 2015-16.
The city overall raises about $1.1 billion in property taxes, splitting it with the school district, which gets 55 percent of revenues. All the temporary increase goes to the city; none to the schools.
Tax-policy activist Brett Mandel, who has sued the city to fix its broken property-tax system, accuses the Nutter administration of deception.
"Perhaps, then, the best accusation to level at our mayor and his 'budget' is that it puts forth a number of assertions that he wishes were true," Mandel wrote on his website March 8.
But Finance Director Rob Dubow says the city is simply accounting for the natural rise in the market value of properties.
