Millage Rate

It was over in six minutes. And it was so casual that Supervisor Robert Wiser showed up sporting a blue sweat suit with red trim. But the loose ends the Whitemarsh Board of Supervisors tied up Thursday afternoon were crucial to keeping the township operating. On Dec. 14, the supervisors approved a resolution adopting the $6.17 million 1990 budget and setting the real estate tax rate at 30.5 mills. But the millage rate also had to be adopted by resolution, according to Lawrence J. Gregan, township manager.

The Warrington Township Board of Supervisors has approved a $2.32 million budget for 1988 that holds the line on taxes and provides for modest increases in service. By a 4-0 vote Tuesday, supervisors approved the budget with a tax rate of 29.58 mills. Supervisor Carol Butterworth was absent from the meeting. Under the 1988 tax rate, the owner of a house assessed at the Warrington average, $8,000, would pay $236.64 in taxes next year, said township manager Stanley Gawel.

Newtown Township taxpayers would pay an additional 2.5 mills in 1992, or $12.50 more on the tax bill of a home assessed at the township average of $5,000, under the budget proposed by the Board of Supervisors on Monday night. The budget calls for expenditures of $2,692,653 and would raise the tax rate to 53.75 mills from the current 51.25. The board is expected to take final action on the budget on Dec. 9. Township Manager Larry M. Comunale said one reason for the proposed increase was a higher-than-normal tax delinquency rate.

The Montgomery County commissioners yesterday approved a plan that would cut municipal, school district and county millage more than 90 percent by 1998. But don't break out the champagne yet. The commissioners' plan is to change the numbers on tax bills to make them easier to understand. The amount of money taxpayers fork over to various governments will remain constant. Currently, the assessed market value that appears on a property tax bill is about 5.3 percent of the property's real market value.

After raising fears that Bucks County's largest municipality was on the brink of financial ruin, township officials gave a tentative nod last night to a 1996-97 budget package that will administer first aid to its financial wounds - without raising taxes. The proposal would eliminate a nagging $1.8 million deficit in two years and cover a projected $650,000 budget shortfall in the township's 1996 general fund by gutting the township's recreation department and tapping into surpluses in separate debt-service and refuse-collection funds.

A large budget surplus has helped Delaware County develop a preliminary 1995 budget that would slash the county property tax rate by 4.5 percent. The budget was unveiled yesterday by the County Council. The tax break of 5.01 mills is coupled with an increase of less than 1 percent in spending in the budget, which must be voted on before the end of the year. A larger than usual surplus of $9,561,000 is left from the 1994 budget. That surplus - $3.2 million more than in 1993 and $6.7 million more than in 1992 - resulted, in part, from a one-time increase in the collection of personal property tax for the last five tax years.

Last year, when Chester County officials approved their 1995 budget with a 1-mill tax hike, they said that was it. In 1995, they promised, government would tighten its belt, trim down, and operate leaner and more efficiently. Apparently, it has. Yesterday, the commissioners learned that as things look now, they likely can pass a 1996 spending plan with no new taxes - a politician's dream. "We made the commitment to hold the line on taxes," Commissioner Karen Martynick said after the meeting.

Chester County officials said yesterday that the results of the first county-wide real estate assessment in more than 20 years will start reaching property owners by the middle of next month. When they open these bills, many of the property owners will most likely be stunned at what greets them. Not only have many properties soared in value, but the commissioners voted yesterday to use a property's fair market value as the basis for taxation. That figure will replace the current formula that makes the assessment one-third of the appraised value in 1972, the last year a reassessment was conducted.

Despite calling for the largest single-year tax increase in the history of the New Hope-Solebury School District, next year's budget has passed with little protest from parents or taxpayers. In a 9-0 vote Monday night, the school board approved the $10.8 million budget, which will raise taxes by 15.7 mills for a total millage rate of 154. That is an increase of $217 for a home owner with property assessed at the district average of $13,800. The increase compounds the $81 school tax added to the average home owner's tab this year.

The Township Council has unveiled a preliminary budget of about $2.85 million for 1996 that would require a 4.9 percent increase in the millage rate. "We would love to do a zero increase," Councilman Thomas M. Griffith said Thursday. "It will still be worked on and fine-tuned. " Under the proposal, the tax rate would increase from 80.75 mills to 84.70. A homeowner with the average township assessment of $5,500 would pay $465.85, up by about $22 over the current year. The proposed budget contains a 3 percent salary increase for employees, including police officers, and $165,000 for road work.

City Council reached a deal today to amend a series of budget bills that would delay the implementation of a controversial new property tax system for one year, but would nonetheless raise real estate taxes and a separate business tax to collect an extra $40 million for the School District of Philadelphia. The compromise among Council members was hashed out during a long day of back-and-forth between Council leaders and Mayor Nutter. Council passed the package of proposals around 9 p.m. The bills will come up for final passage next week, along with the rest of the necessary budget and spending bills, unless Council wants to further amend the bills and call for another meeting before the end of June.

City Council has established the framework for a budget deal that would give Mayor Nutter all or most of the money he wants for the Philadelphia School District, and begin to shed light on how much property owners can expect to pay in taxes next year. Under the deal, the property tax rate under a new assessment system would be between 1.75 and 1.80 percent of a property's value — depending on where Council sets the homestead exemption. The tax rate, or millage, could end up lower, depending on what value the ongoing reassessment tags as a total for all real estate citywide.

So we know the question you're really asking amid this budget debate: what the heck is happening to my tax bill? We'll try to answer. Just bear with us. If Council ends up approving Mayor Nutter's plan to move to a property-tax system based on market values, known as the Actual Value Initiative (AVI), your tax bill is likely going to change. But the city hasn't yet released new assessments or what the millage rate will be, so the best we can do right now is an educated guess.

The dual effort to remake the city's property-tax system and raise more money for Philadelphia's school district took a small step forward Monday after a state legislator agreed to pull an amendment that could have gotten in the way of both those changes. State Sen. Larry Farnese's decision was a compromise with City Council President Darrell L. Clarke, who agreed that Council would vote separately on the property-tax proposal, known as the Actual Value Initiative, and on raising the additional $94 million the School District says it needs to open classrooms in the fall.

State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams said Thursday that fellow members of the Philadelphia legislative delegation needed to speak with "one voice" to pass bills essential to enacting Mayor Nutter's property-tax changes, which also could provide desperately needed funding for schools. "Those bills were moving through the legislature quite effectively, quite quietly, the governor was prepared to sign them, until Philadelphia decided to have its own food fight," Williams said. "Some members in our delegation decided that ‘well, maybe it's not in our best interest right now to move forward on this.'?"

In a councilmanic showdown, Bill Green and Wilson Goode Jr. squared off Thursday over Mayor Nutter's plan to revamp the property-tax system — a source of much consternation and debate in City Hall recently. No doubt, once homes are assessed and taxed at their true market value, there will be winners and losers. Some homeowners will see drastic increases; many will get a tax break. In a series of speeches capping Thursday's City Council meeting, Goode emphasized that there are 250,000 houses at or below the city's median value of $120,000.

With all the uncertainty surrounding Mayor Nutter's effort to reform the city's property tax system, another variable entered the picture Wednesday — one that could potentially upend the administration's plans. State Sen. Larry Farnese (D., Phila.) said Wednesday he would seek to amend a bill in the General Assembly — Senate Bill 1303 — that is essential to Nutter's Actual Valuation Initiative (AVI). Without the bill, which would give the city the necessary authority to change the millage, or property tax rate, the city likely could not proceed with AVI — and Nutter officials admit they have no"Plan B. " Farnese said he supports AVI and is not trying to stop the process in its tracks.

By Rob Dubow Fair. Accurate. Understandable. None of these words describe the city's current property assessment system. The Actual Value Initiative, which is now being implemented by the city's Office of Property Assessment, will change that. Is it fair that identical houses on the same block can have radically different values for tax purposes? No. AVI will fix that by making sure that all properties are assessed accurately so that similar houses will have similar values for tax purposes.

CITY COUNCIL on Thursday delivered a major holdup to Mayor Nutter's plan to reform the city's property-tax system and collect an extra $90 million along the way. Councilman Mark Squilla introduced a bill that would keep the current property-tax system, assessments and millage rate in place for another year. "We need to make sure that this is done correctly," said Squilla, whose 1st District covers parts of South Philly, Center City, Old City and the river wards. "We all agree that our tax system is not a fair system, but we have to make sure we do it right.

City Council on Thursday showed the first signs of rebellion against Mayor Nutter's plan to reform the city's property-tax system while picking up an extra $90 million in the process. Councilman Mark Squilla, whose First District in South Philadelphia could face some of the steepest tax increases from the switch, introduced a bill to keep the current system and tax rates for one more year. Squilla's bill and other grumblings from Council members emerged just days before Nutter administration officials are scheduled to testify before Council on their proposed budget.