Thank you, Mr. President. I truly love my republican colleagues in this Chambers. They are a special kind of colleague, conservative as many of my democratic colleagues are, but very special, each and every one, to me. And I just want to particularly thank them for not accepting Mitt out to my district. Unbeknownst to many people, he was there this morning at Bluford Elementary School at 57th and Media, and he was espousing his class sizes don't matter. And everybody knows, or at least they know internally, that size does matter. And we say to him that -- class size. Come on now. And, furthermore, that as we start to look at the seriousness of the undertaking that we're about to go and some of the complex problems not just budgetarily, but issues of class size, issues of school violence, I want to report something to you that was favorable. Many of my colleagues and their staff sent staff to Chester, Pennsylvania where there is a program called Youth Court, where I watched something truly marvelous, that young people were dispensing justice to young people, dealing with issues of truancy, class disruption, things that you hold near and dear and have discussed during the education hearings that Councilwoman Blackwell has. And I watched young people take the justice system seriously, not only those who violated rules but those who are there to enforce rules the bailiff, the legal counsel, the judge. All of them looked at this with serious eyes, and afterwards there was a restorative justice. They weren't asking about just what you did, but why you did it. They weren't saying you're going to get punished, but we're going to help you with tutorials or anger management, and it was holistic in its nature and I just swelled with pride. We have a model of it, I believe, in South Philadelphia where we're going to take a look at it, but one of those programs needs to be implemented in the Philadelphia School Reform Commission's agenda. of youth violence, the Ray-Rays of the world, you have prior a history of violence, you have drug and alcohol addiction, you have delinquents that don't go to school, you have people from poor families and people who are underachieving in classrooms. All of these are predictors, predictors of violent behavior in the classroom. All of these issues can be dealt with peer to peer through Youth Courts. I'd like us to consider it, and I appreciate your indulgence with that. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Mr. President. I think it's been a very interesting week for us here in City Council. It's been a week of more and with respect to the budget and the Actual Value Initiative, there's a little bit more clarity. We have a basic acknowledgment from the Administration that the aggregate value of all real estate in the City is going to be around $90 billion. We have a basic acknowledgment that there will be a $200 million property tax increase applied to residential property owners only and a $100 million tax decrease applied to commercial and industrial properties only, for a shift in our tax burden of $300 million. We've learned that if we raise $94 million for use and occupancy instead of through real estate taxes, it is only a 10 percent increase in the use and occupancy rates currently paid as compared to a 25 percent decrease in the commercial and industrial real estate taxes in the aggregate that will be applied to businesses. apply to their properties at a $15,000 homestead is approximately 1.5 percent under the Administration's proposal and 1.4 percent or 10 mills lower if we collect $94 million in use and occupancy tax that will benefit all homeowners. We learned smoothing hurts more people than it helps, based on the Administration's testimony. I think we have the same uncertainties. We do not know if a formulaic approach is legal, and I hear more and more from respected members of the legal community that it will not be. That essentially means that we are going to have to, as a body, set a default rate. While we have some guesses about the aggregate value, we don't know it exactly. So we're going to have to set a default rate far higher than the rate we would have to set it at if we knew the aggregate value, just to make sure we collect enough money for the City and The Administration yesterday suggested, although they're going to get back to us with final numbers, that that rate should be around 1.7 percent applied to the value of your property. The public is not aware that the City is looking at applying millage rates of 1.5 to 1.7 percent because it's been widely reported since March that it's going to be 1.25 percent. I think the public needs to be aware, needs to start paying attention to this and needs to see how this is going to impact them. So where are we? Yesterday a reverend, whose name I don't recall, came in and testified on the various amendments that were proposed earlier this week, and she said, My mother always told me don't jump into the water if you can't see the bottom. Mr. President, the water is not clear. It's far more dense and hard to see through.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Goode.
Thank you, Mr. President. I've watched over the last several weeks that some have tried to frame debate over property taxes and School District funding, changing the focus of the debate, the purpose for the debate and sometimes even their position within the debate. But the issue is not really debatable. Properties will be reassessed and some money will go to the School District, if Harrisburg cooperates. If not, we have options, but that's not my preferred option. The real issue is that there will be winners and losers. Some might want to trick you into looking at the aggregate burden of certain taxpayers and comparing it to the taxpayers to determine what's fair. But you don't get an aggregate bill; you get an individual bill. So why would anyone look at homeowners as an aggregate when the impact on individual homeowners vary so greatly? Lost in this discussion until recently has been the fact that a full reassessment should mean a lower tax bill for a majority of homeowners. We know that some homes are currently overassessed and some homes are currently under-assessed. That means some people are paying less than they should be and some people are paying more than they should be. What does that mean for the homeowner with the median home value or less in Philadelphia? If we offer the right homestead exemption, it means that the bill will go down. In fact, if we offer the right exemption, the tax bill goes down for many homeowners, if not most. to make thousands of homeowners wait for a tax decrease? No. They have shouldered an unfair burden for years. Some say let's continue the temporary tax increase for everybody for another year and take away that tax cut for thousands of homeowners. Some say let's raise another tax for schools and take away that tax cut for thousands of homeowners. I'll be voting for a tax cut for those homeowners. They deserve it, fair and square, here and now. Hundreds of thousands of homes are worth less than a hundred thousand dollars, so with the right exemption, the tax bill will go down. That needs to be said loud and clear. In the end, we can't let people trick thousands of homeowners out of their tax cut with spreadsheets and media spin. They deserve their tax cut, fair and square, here and now. Fair is fair. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, Mr. President. I rise to make an announcement, but since this whole issue about tax reform has been on the table, I don't know how -- and I understand my colleague, Councilman Squilla, has some legislation that says we wait until we get everything done, and it seems to me that makes more sense than anything. The Senate hasn't moved. The House doesn't have anything to vote on to allow AVI. We don't have answers from the Administration on what rates, what numbers we're talking about. I don't know how we move forward without information and without numbers. So that's my two cents on the issue. But actually I wanted to remind everyone that we have the President of Hospital, Dr. Altschuler, across the hall. We have a briefing by Children's Hospital that is due to start now at noon, and lunch will be provided. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Mr. President. Many of us get an opportunity in our office to hire young people whereby they can be a sponge and we can be mentors, and I join the many in Council who take great pride in giving those type of opportunities for young people, because I too was one of them. What I often say when I get a chance to speak to young audiences is that, are young people going to carry on what we have started? They will sit where we are sitting and, when we are gone, attend to those things we thought a Council may adopt all the policies we please, but at some juncture, these policies are going to be carried out by them. They're going to move in and assume control of our cities, our states and our nations. They're going to move in, move up and take over our churches, our universities, our corporations, our schools and our government. All of our books are going to be judged, praised or condemned by them. I think President Barack Obama said it best that if you want to make a difference in the life of a nation, in the life of a child, become a teacher. With that in mind, today I want to shine the light on a young woman, still early in her budding career, and I say with mixed emotion that this staff person, Candice Woods, has done what she stated she would do two years ago. When young people come to my thinking about graduate school, if they breathe it, then I expect them to deliver. Just as Joe Meade came several years ago saying he wanted to complete his Master's program in public administration, he got it done before he left my office and Joe Meade is a superstar. Today, Candice Woods, after much deliberation, consternation for the past year, fear, hesitancy, after studying diligently for the GREs and successfully passing the GREs, after completing the arduous task of applying to several different graduate schools in the region, she has been granted admission to Villanova University Graduate School of Education. So I expect, Mr. President, that Candice Woods will one day sit as our Secretary of Education or sit as the next Superintendent of our schools, starting out first as a principal, which is a short-term goal, and I will say have and that after completion of her Master's degree, she will complete her Ph.D. in education. So join me in congratulating and saluting Candice Woods, who will be leaving us and pursuing her graduate degree in education at Villanova University.
Thank you, Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Mr. President. First, I'd like to on a positive note, if there is one in the AVI discussion, I'd like to thank you, Councilman Squilla and Herb Wetzel, who have all helped me realize something that 24 years and hopefully with the support of this Council with an amendment to the bill that we're dealing with on AVI, the ability to protect long-term homeowners in our city that have lived in neighborhoods that have, for want of a better term, gentrified or improved around them, primarily with real estate tax abatements that they were not able to take advantage of, and most of the folks who live in these neighborhoods are in your district, are in Mark Squilla's district, are in Councilwoman Blackwell's district and Kenyatta Johnson's district. These are some folks, for example, in the 2300 block of Christian Street where new construction and renovation are going on all around them. A person who bought a house in 1972 for $50,000, that house is now supposed to be or is going to be worth or assessed at about $450,000, and that kind of tax burden is unbearable for people like that. seen so far, whether you accept it or whether you reject it, is that many neighbors in the City, as Councilman Goode tells us, are going to go down. Some will go slightly up. But that 30,000 households or so that are experiencing that potential of a 200, 300, 400 percent increase in their market value, with the support of Councilman Squilla and Herb and you and the work that we're doing, will allow us to protect them regardless of what happens down the road. That is a 24-year issue. In 1988, when I worked for Senator Fumo -- and I would give him all credit for getting this done -- there was a state constitutional amendment that was passed giving Philadelphia the ability to offer long-term residents property tax relief. For one reason or another over the 24 years, we've not been able to do it. The one good thing about AVI is it's forced us to actually offer that potentially. So I do want to thank you all for your help. I thank you for tasking me and Councilman Squilla to do this, and I thank Herb for his diligence. He's amazed me with his diligence and knowledge of housing stock and housing values in the City, and I look forward to having the support of our colleagues in at least passing that particular amendment, even if we don't go forward with the full AVI. Again, I thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman O'Brien.
Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to be recognized as a point of order to correct the record. Mitt must have misplaced my phone number, an invitation, but if the Majority Leader would like to extend an invitation to me to visit that school, I would welcome it. Thank you, Mr. President.
Councilman, I'm sure he'll be back. Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Jones.
I'm not going to do it. I just want to recognize Nakia S. Campbell, who was the founder of Pink Ladies Youth Mentorship program, who came to see democracy in action today. If she will stand, we can welcome her so she can take that back to some young ladies who aspire as Councilwoman Brown talked about. (Applause.)
welcome, sir. The Chair recognizes Councilman O'Neill.
Yes, Mr. President. I wanted to let the Majority Leader know as well that I learned about it on KYW driving in this morning, as he did, and that's the usual case when something like that happens with a local government official. But Councilman Green mentioned several scenarios of the new millage, and the one that is in law right now would be the one -- the millage that renders the City revenue neutral. That is then-Councilman, now Mayor Nutter's bill that passed unanimously. And I understand that in the legislation the Administration sent up to us on AVI, there is a repeal buried in that legislation of that bill. And a lot of people talked about a separate vote for any real estate tax above and beyond. That really should have a separate vote nothing less. The public deserves nothing less than transparency. We have a city law that prevents us from doing something. Let's vote to get rid of it if it was a bad law that we all passed, which the Mayor was the chief sponsor of. It's a very serious issue, and it has a lot to do with whether it's 1.2, 1.25, 1.5 or 1.7. And where a lot of people may have been getting decreases or at least being able to breathe when it comes in, that differential, whether it's between the 1.2 and the 1.7, could be the reason they can't breathe anymore financially. And we should be way out front whenever we do this that we are getting more than we were supposed to get if we decide to not be revenue neutral. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman
Thank you, Mr. President. I want to agree with most of what everybody has said about AVI. Certainly it is important to put protective measures in place, and you took the lead on that by presenting four bills, deferrals and gentrifications. We know there are issues with means testing. And certainly I don't want to, through a bill, give a millionaire the opportunity to have a gentrification deferral. And so I know we're working -you're working through all those issues with our state colleagues, and I want to thank you for that. And obviously we should protect people who need protection as we make this -- as we consider a shift to AVI this year or a shift to next year. Secondly, I want to agree with Councilman Goode about everything he says about what the impact of AVI will be. I completely agree, and I completely agree a higher homestead, it's going to help people with lower-value houses to an even greater extent and lower their taxes to an even greater extent, and I hope they'll support one of my two amendments to the Mayor's budget to do just that, to increase it to 40,000 in one case. So I'm not disagreeing with anybody's premise. What I'm saying is what should be the -- how do we take into account the effects of AVI and how do we help people even more than is helped under the proposed bill. Everyone's individual bill is their proportionate share of the aggregate amount. That is why the aggregate matters, because that's how your bill is determined and sliced and diced. If we use use and occupancy tax or any other tax to decrease the amount we collect in real estate tax, as I suggested $94 million, we lower the home, as I've suggested, by 10 mills, which lowers even more the amount of real estate tax we would collect from low, middle class and high-income earners. So I hope that on the basis of that, I can get support for that as well. What I'd like to talk about is a few things that we haven't talked about, which is I'd like people to consider a middle-income family who wouldn't qualify for a deferral or gentrification relief or any other relief, who lives in Wynnefield or Roxborough, who will see their tax bill go up by several thousand dollars if the millage is set at 1.5 and 1.7 and who is living paycheck to paycheck, both spouses work, they reach to buy their house. That family doesn't have the three or four hundred dollars a month that their mortgage company is going to require that they add to their mortgage payment every year to pay the tax bill at the end of not prepared for this because there has not been public disclosure and preparation of what the millage rate is going to be that's applied to the public. There are many unintended consequences of this, and some of the unintended consequences will include people whose mortgages require them to put aside on a monthly basis the amount of their tax bill, and that is going to increase dramatically for some people, and for people on the edge, for people who reach to buy a house, it could make a difference between them keeping their house or not. And so there's a lot of factors at use here, and I don't think, without knowing a millage rate, being able to discuss it with the public, it's a very difficult conversation to have, because it's theoretical and it's policy and it's not applied on the ground. So I guess all I would have to is, for people who are prepared to proceed without more information, I certainly hope the water is deep enough. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Bass.
Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to switch gears for a brief moment and thank and invite to stand the seniors from the 2000 block of Bellevue Street in the 8th Council District who are here with us today. If we could have you stand and just -- we appreciate you coming down. Thank you so much. (Applause.)
As we talk about important issues like AVI and schools, I just want to reiterate how important it is to have our constituents be involved and be engaged. much for coming down, and I look forward to talking to you about these issues after the session. So thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you, Mr. President. So let's provide some more information. There are about 16,000 homes valued less than $20,000. There are about 38,000 homes valued between $20,000 and $40,000. There are about 68,000 homes valued between $40,000 and $60,000. There are about 50,000 homes valued between 60 and 70. And when you begin to add all this up, there are about 250,000 homes that fall at the median value or below. About 75 percent of homes in Philadelphia are around median an overwhelming majority of homeowners. That's the truth. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Mr. President. I completely agree that those are the home prices that exist for those number of homes. I represent people who live in every kind of home, lower, middle and every income class. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Goode.
The at-large members of Council do represent all the citizens of Philadelphia, not just the majority. But people have not made it of the homeowners will get a tax break under AVI, whether we do it this year or next year. People did not seem concerned for years and years when those taxpayers were overburdened and had to pay more than their fair share while other people didn't pay their fair share. Now they seem to be ultra-concerned about those who have been under-assessed. The question is, are they going to give the money back that they didn't pay? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. President. This is a very important issue, and it is important to move to AVI. I agree with Councilman Goode completely in that regard. That is why this body, over objections from the Nutter Administration three years ago, created the Office of Property Assessment. That is why for came in here, many of us asked questions about why we didn't go to AVI, why don't they provide us the data so that we can set a millage that is lower. In other words, act with full information, as Councilman O'Neill points out Mayor Nutter suggested when he passed Section 19-1308, which requires us to do just that. So the question is simply this: Do we jump into the water without knowing how deep it is or should we act with full information? Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Sanchez.
Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank you and ask you for your continued patience as we work through the very complicated and very serious nature about what we are about to represent a district where many folks, as Councilman Goode mentioned, have been overassessed and will be paying less, and unfortunately for us, we can only do what the tools the state gives us to do around protecting folks and providing income-based relief to citizens across the City. What I do know is that by June 30th and hopefully by June 7th, this Council will put forth its best efforts with what we have at that time to make the decisions that all the citizens of Philadelphia elected us to do. So I look forward to some resolution. And if this is not perfect, because this process is not perfect, next year we have an opportunity to make it better. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilwoman. The Chair recognizes Councilman
Thank you, Mr. President. I will end with this. Councilman Green can go again if he wants. Clearly we've been overtaxing a majority of homeowners for years. What we're saying to them is, we don't have enough information, so we're going to overtax you again. That's the message you're sending when you put it in that context. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Kenney.
Thank you, Mr. President. Just for the purposes of attribution, the line about jumping into the water without knowing how deep the water is is Mrs. Squilla's comment. Mark person who first brought that up. So I want to just make sure she gets the attribution. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. The Chair recognizes Councilman Green.
Thank you, Mr. President. I will agree. I will end by agreeing with Mrs. Squilla.
There being none, the Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you indeed, Mr. President. I move that Council stand adjourned until Thursday, May 31st, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. (Duly seconded.)
It's been moved and properly seconded. All those in favor? (Aye.)
The ayes have it. m. Thank you. ) CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on May 24, 2012, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. MICHELE L. ) A Ad 8:3,15 9:25 advise 28:25 Amen 4:5,6 108:25 110:6 AAA 57:23 58:4 17:6 18:12 Affairs 54:2,9 amend 67:3 127:2 128:7,24 59:2 add 127:24 affirmative 66:22 amending 32:18 apply 109:2 abandonment 130:22 69:15 74:9 77:4 33:23 35:23 138:20 88:20 added 50:12 79:20 85:21 36:9,22 37:2,15 applying 110:9 abatements addiction 98:8 91:9 94:5 41:2,5,7,9,16 117:15 119:10 107:6 afford 58:20 48:6 50:8 51:15 appointing 11:3 ability 119:5 addictions 100:11 100:5,7 64:10 83:8 29:9 48:25 49:7 120:20 adding 83:10 African 8:11 91:14 49:13 able 3:24,25 18:3 91:19 16:25 amendment appointment 26:25 119:11 additional 50:12 agenda 106:25 119:4 120:19 70:24 120:23 124:13 56:3 94:8 aggregate 108:8 121:13 appoints 10:21,22 128:20 address 39:23 108:24 109:20 amendments appreciate 28:2 absence 5:9,15,23 48:8 60:11 109:24 111:24 110:19 126:7 107:15 129:18 absolutely 9:10 addresses 38:19 112:2,4,6 American 8:11 approach 109:14 abstaining 80:13 adhering 15:8 126:18,19 17:2 23:5 approached 82:8 87:19 adjourned 136:23 ago 116:24 117:5 amount 126:18,23 57:17 Academy 23:6 137:11,14 132:24 127:4 128:12 appropriate 33:2 30:20 ADJOURNME... m 1:7 136:24 Bellevue 129:15 Billboard/Airpl...