AVI’s Motto: We’re Not Trying to Get Things Right, Just Righter Than Before

A new Pew study shows that residences will bear more of a property tax burden than businesses when the Actual Value Initiative, the city’s new property assessment program, is implemented. But before you go crying about The Man and occupying Dilworth Plaza, here’s something to remember: AVI is meant to correct past mistakes and those mistakes overwhelmingly pertained to residential properties.

It doesn’t mean commercial properties are getting a break; it just means they get fewer adjustments. Likewise with properties with a 10-year tax abatement.

This is one of those studies that people could read headlines about and get agitated. But it wouldn’t really accurately respond to the facts–not only of the Pew research, but to the goals of AVI. The goals aren’t to make the system perfect and fair to everyone. It’s to make the system better than it was before. Hence our headline.

• Pew: New assessments redistribute Philly property-tax burden [NewsWorks via PhillyPost]