As many of you have heard, State Senator Vincent Fumo recently put his Fairmount area mansion up for sale. The asking price is a whopping $6.95 million dollars. According to the listing on Fox & Roach's website, the property has been "restored to it's original grandeur" with elevators on all 6 floors, a brick oven and spa, wine cellar, 7 fireplaces, 3 powder rooms, a large custom vault, and a state of the art security system.

However, the City of Philadelphia has the value of this famously opulent home listed at only $250,000. Accordingly, Fumo only pays $6,611 in property taxes--a tiny fraction of what he would owe if the building were taxed at its current sales price. On Thursday, in a vote that stunned reporters and drew widespread outrage, the BRT upheald the current listed value. The property will not be reassessed until 2009.

So today Anne Dicker put in an official bid to purchase the mansion for $250,001. This is $1 above the value as assessed by the city's Bureau of Revision and Taxes.

Keep in mind that this is the same mansion from Fumo's 139 count federal indictment. According to prosecutors, for nearly 18 months a senate aide worked "in nearly a full-time capacity as the project manager who coordinated the work of contractors and laborers involved in the expansive restoration and refurbishment of Fumo's mansion." The indictment also alleges that Fumo tasked another senate aide with regularly cleaning the Fairmount mansion on Senate time, and employees of Citizen Alliance, a non-profit that receives state funding, regularly did chores and maintenance at the 33-room property. In all, Fumo is suspected of misusing $1 million in state resources.

If by some miracle Anne actually manages to purchase the property at its currently assessed value, she plans to turn around and sell it for upwards of $1.25 million, and donate the profits from the sale to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.