One of the major building blocks would be actual sale. I'm sure there are some sales like what you just described.
Could be. Evaluators will look at records to see what folks are asking for this kind of property. And there can be some reaction. If you were the seller and you came before our board on appeal and said, "Wait a minute. I'm asking a million dollars, but I could ask $10 million. It doesn't mean anything. What matters is these three sales that sold for 200,000. And they would win because under the law that's what we have to do. We have to just look at the sales. However, I think there are a couple of ways that our staff is now, again, using the technology. I think our staff is better able to see what's out in the market, to 2030 3/11/02 - WHOLE - BILL 02001 ('03 BUDGET) see what asking prices are, and make phone calls based on that to the brokers and see if, look, you've got a listing price of a million dollars for this piece. What are you really going to take? You know, those kinds of things. All of those are indications of value. And then to make some reasoned and professional judgment on that value.
Because it turns a neighborhood that may be getting up and moving, you price it out of the range of the people who may want to come in and develop.
Sure. I appreciate what you're saying. Again, it's one of the things that our staff has to do. There are things when you've got 576,000 properties -- and that's not an excuse -- that fall through the cracks, we've got to make sure that those cracks are narrower and narrower and narrower so that when this kind of information comes to our attention that we can react to it. But be assured, however, we can't react to it immediately. We do have to wait a year. If, for instance, that were to be told to me today that that property sold for a million, we couldn't change that value today. We'd have to wait until our next 2031 3/11/02 - WHOLE - BILL 02001 ('03 BUDGET) assessment date to change the value.
The guy who I bought from, there was a couple lots and my wife finally decided that she wanted that last lot. And from today to tomorrow it went from 15,000 to 30.
Well, you know, sometimes that's how the market works, too. If you have a real desire somebody's going to jack the price up.
Definitely. That happened. What is projected revenue that will be derived from our taxes for the public education system in the year coming up?
I think we're looking at certainly what we did for '02. Now, these are gross numbers. I will tell you if everybody paid every dollar they owed on a given day, these would be the gross numbers. That may not be everything that's collected.
Yes, it would go to the schools. We figure it's roughly $840 million gross. City and School District. 2032 3/11/02 - WHOLE - BILL 02001 ('03 BUDGET)
Let's call it 25, $30 million. But that is a total. Now, 55 percent of that is School District money. So 55 percent of 30, we'll say roughly would be what you're looking at. So about $20 million. But, again, we are making that projection based on what we did this year to what we will do next year. Just don't hold us specifically to any given number, we're looking at those figures and I think that's pretty accurate. That's what we did this year.
Yes. But, again, gross numbers. If everybody paid -- there are people who aren't going to pay taxes and there are obviously -- you know, there are collection problems that Revenue must have. So if you wanted to look at what was actually collected, I guess you'd have to ask the Department of Revenue. But the numbers that would 2033 3/11/02 - WHOLE - BILL 02001 ('03 BUDGET) be floating around in my head would be somewhere around $800 million total, you know, 810 million total. And 55 percent of that would be going to the School District.
Thank. Are there any other questions from Members of the Committee?. Seeing none, thank you very much. This hearing has been very informative. Thank you. This committee will stand in recess until Tuesday, March 12th at 9:30. Thank you. (Council adjourned at 1:00 p.m.) - - - 2034 C E R T I F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of March 11, 2002, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. RE: COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE ___________________________ Lisa C. Bradley, RPR and Notary Public