Butkovitz: AVI Assessments Worse Than Old, Bad Property Tax Assessments

CBS Philly reports that City Controller Alan Butkovitz has declared the city’s new AVI property tax assessments —designed to more fairly tax owners on their property values by making the assessed value line up more closely to the property’s actual value—is, in fact, not accomplishing th

“There’s no question the old numbers are bad, they’re very bad. But they’re not as bad as the new numbers,” Butkovitz said.

Butkovitz, who is running for re-election, commissioned the $27,000 study to have nationally known tax expert Robert Strauss, an economics professor at Carnegie-Mellon University, analyze the numbers.

Strauss (at right in photo) says he found that Philadelphia’s Office of Property Assessment was way off, with assessments tilted in favor of more affluent, white residents and against African-Americans of lesser means.

The entire report can be found here. No word on whether Mayor Nutter or the Council might take steps in response to Butkovitz’s report.