No way to find out now about Philly property tax bill

Would you like to know how much you're going to pay in property taxes before City Council passes a budget that depends largely on what it expects to collect from each property owner?

Well, too bad. Not going to happen.

Philadelphia is in the midst of its Actual Value Initiative (AVI), part of an endeavor to fix a historically inequitable tax system based on decades of bad and incomplete assessments. Assessors have fanned across the city in an attempt to tag each property with its market - actual - value.

But the job won't be done until at least September, and the new City Council, which convenes its first regular meeting Thursday, must pass a budget and set a millage rate - the property tax rate - before the start of the fiscal year July 1.

"We're going to be asked to do a tax prior to knowing . . . what the value of all the land is. That has some practical problems with it," said Councilman Bill Green. "That essentially means we are putting in place a new tax without having a true public debate on the issue. Not that we can do anything about it."

AVI would figure to be a daunting challenge for any Council, but the 2012 version comes before a Council with six freshman members and a new leadership team.

The city is also coming off several lean years marked by cutting services and raising taxes in often-bruising budget fights.

The six new members - Democrats Cindy Bass, Bobby Henon, Kenyatta Johnson, and Mark Squilla, and Republicans Dennis O'Brien and David Oh - are likely to establish themselves and their legislative priorities in the early months.

Meanwhile, the Democratic leadership - particularly new President Darrell L. Clarke - will try to build coalitions of at least nine votes for its own package of revenue-generating ideas.

Clarke has a seven-point plan that includes previously floated ideas to sell advertising space on public property and to create development districts to sell off blighted property.

The leadership also plans to explore selling certain city assets.

"We have $80 million plus of surplus real estate that we should at least hang a shingle on and see what we get," said new Majority Leader Curtis Jones Jr. "We're missing valuable revenue opportunities that I think we need to look at now."