Tensions are running high between City Council and the Office of Property Assessment (OPA) following a hearing Monday on the agencyâs performance.
Philadelphiaâs real estate assessments have been criticized for years for placing disproportionately high tax burdens on lower-income neighborhoods.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has called for scrutiny of the process, dating back to her time on City Council. At the end of last week, her Philadelphia Home Assessment Bias Task Force released a report on next steps.
One of the task forceâs chief recommendations is to stick with a two- to three-year citywide reassessment cycle. That suggestion did not sit well with some City Council members, who instead are asking for a freeze on assessments.
âI understand that a lot of the recommendations will take time, so I just want to go back to this point of prioritizing equity as much as we prioritize reassessments,â said Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, chair of the Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development, and the Homeless.
âAre you willing to halt reassessments until we have more progress on these recommendations?â Gauthier asked OPA chief James Aros.
He responded: âFor us to pause, I would not commit to that. For us to pause for a certain period of time to when there is a complete fix would prevent improvement.â
Experts and some advocates say that OPAâs performance is getting better, but the latest reassessments saw valuations rise higher in long impoverished Kensington than in any other neighborhood.
Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, who represents much of that area and called for Mondayâs hearing, expressed frustration with Arosâs responses and clashed with him repeatedly.
âThis City Council called for reforms back in 2019, and weâre still having the same conversation about a process that has been unfair, has been nontransparent, and has been a problem for everyone,â Lozada said.
Parkerâs task force found that OPAâs performance improved over time, although iniquities persist. Although the average increase in this yearâs assessments was 3%, some predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods saw spikes of as much as 50%.
One member of the task force, Monty Wilson of Community Legal Services (CLS), who has the support of City Council and the administration, tried to strike a balance between recognizing the legislatorsâ concerns while acknowledging OPAâs efforts.
âThings have improved, and it would be absolutely wrong of me to say otherwise,â said Wilson, a senior attorney with CLSâs Consumer Housing Unit.
âThe truth is that the Philadelphia Assessment Office is probably the best, most accurate assessment officeâ in Pennsylvania, Wilson said. âIâm not saying thatâs good enough, but thatâs the truth.â
Still, Wilson noted, OPA makes thousands of errors across the close to 600,000 parcels in its purview. The window to challenge inaccurate assessments should be extended, he said, so those who will be subject to dramatically higher property tax bills have more time to contest them.
Currently, new assessments are released in the summer, and challenges must be submitted by early October. Why not extend that to December, Wilson said, or allow for appeals at any time, if property owners can show cause?
At the hearing, Aros said his agency is seeking better data for future evaluations, including from the real estate listing service Bright MLS, which has been resistant to their overtures.
OPA…
