I can't say I've fully digested it yet, but it's a real service. And I agree with you totally on going to the U & O, rather than the real estate tax, as the vehicle of choice for raising school district money (although I still think, wherever the money comes from, it should be sequestered until the SRC drops its privatization scheme.) But please tell us this: why do you think that raising the U & O is better for business than raising any other business tax. It's paid by business. Dollars are dollars. What do you see as the difference?

property taxes using this spreadsheet, my taxes would increase almost 250%... and I live in Kensington. When you combine these new numbers with the wage tax, Philly will become impossible for me to live in. The taxes dwarf what I paid in local taxes when I lived in NJ. The city will be shooting itself in the foot if this tax increase goes through.

I believe we need a fairer and better system of taxation. I am for more money for schools. I believe our local municipality needs to come up with money for schools. I am not against higher taxes. But I am against this rollout of AVI.

The thing that's hard to understand from the administration is whether they didn't know about the differing impact on residential vs. business, or whether they knew but just didn't really want to talk about it. Either way, thanks Councilman for your work to look for solutions.

AVI in its current form is simply political suicide for City Council.

You have neighborhoods like the Northeast which are probably going to see a DROP in total taxes owed because they pay closer to actual value, against the AVI rollout. That speaks volumes. I also live in Kensington and my tax bill I know for what I paid on my property, in late 2010, which is probably close to actual value, is the exact same amount the property I was living in Mayfair which was 1/2 the size of my current house, and the Mayfair house was a 1952 Airlite completely untouched on the inside where my Kensington house is brand new.

I know my taxes should be double what they are now given the municipal standard of "1% of actual value/year" back of the hand guideline. AVI for me will mean my direct contribution to the City of Philadelphia in local taxes will be a plump 5-figure amount annually. And I don't own a business; I'm just a wage-earner. That's fairly hefty (but still loads cheaper than if I lived in New Jersey).

For my immediate neighbors though, I can't say the same thing. My block has some lower income families and seniors on fixed incomes. While I can absorb the absurt 450% hike Bill Green's tax calculator suggests, few people on my block can suffer that pain, and I could be left with a lot of vacant houses on my block if AVI proceeds down its present course.

Without a homeowner's exemption in place; who knows what kind of chaos that will create with so many people bailing out because of their sticker shock tax bill. And if you've forgotten, I am in KENSINGTON---most people consider the name of my neighborhood to be a 4-letter word synonymous with the Strangler. It takes some brave souls to get over the stigma of living in Kensington and we need all of our residents and our blocks that have a low vacancy rate to CONTINUE to have a low vacancy rate in order to fight the blight in adjacent areas of Kensington that have already been destroyed due to decay.

The Nutter proposal for AVI just has too many risks and not enough rewards. PSD needs a quarter billion dollars and this $94MM that's proposed only shortens the gap by not even half, and it could come at a high risk of devaluing property value right at the same time that the 10 year tax abatements are starting to expire. For every $100/mo more you're asking people to pay more on their property taxes at current FHA lending rates that will lower asking prices on real estate by $20-$25K; those homeowners will then challenge their assessments and then you won't get $94MM the following year off the same properties, and you might not have enough tax abatement properties returning to market assessments fast enough to cover that gap as their property values will get hit with the higher tax rates, too.

I would think carefully before doing this. Trying to slam AVI down Philadelphian's throats before the summer recess is only going to make Council's life a living hell in the fall when OPA sends out the reassessment letters.

I am looking what is in the above that some political hack doesn't want us to see, but can't find it

RichardKane215-563-2866CenterCity19103

With a 30 or 35k exemption, most of the worst areas of kensington,harrowgate and fairhill will have a value of 0. Will resident homeowners and landlords in these areas pay nothing now?

the twenty or so other billion dollar companies who pay no income tax year after year while funding Tea Party groups that whine about people who earn $20,000/yr and pay no federal income tax (though they still pay many other taxes.)