Based on those pending nonresidential appeals, the city and struggling school district could lose as much as $80 million. City officials have not released an estimate, but they said they expected the loss to be much less.
The city will appeal to the Court of Common Pleas, said Frances R. Beckley, chief counsel to the city's Revenue Department.
The city also has not given up on getting relief from the State Tax Equalization Board and is taking extraordinary measures, outside court, to do so. The Equalization Board published the tax ratio last summer that opened the door to appeals based exclusively on what portion of a property's certified market value should be taxed.
In a new set of data sent to the state board Friday, the city's Office of Property Assessment increased assessed values on properties sold in 2010 by 41 percent, citing a 2004 city ordinance that acknowledged that market values certified by the city are not actual market values - a symptom of the city's historically flawed property-tax system.
When told of the city's move in sending the new set of data, which could nullify most pending tax appeals, several real estate professionals were stunned.
Lawyer Carl S. Primavera's reaction: "How can they do that? I don't get it."
"I think it's astonishing," said Joseph C. Bright, another real estate lawyer.
"I'm flabbergasted," said David Glancey, former chairman of the old Board of Revision of Taxes, which was split into a new, independent BRT and the Office of Property Assessment, which is part of the city's Department of Revenue.
"What the city is doing is literally a crime. They are cheating. They are stealing from people," said Brett Mandel, a tax-policy activist.
The Office of Property Assessment website still shows assessed values certified for the current year, but the data sent to Harrisburg differ.
