City Council stayed on course with their budget plan tonight – moving ahead with a deal that would delay Nutter's property tax overhaul for a year and provide $40 million in funding to the school district.
Nutter had sought to immediately move to a property tax system based on market values, known as the Actual Value Initiative (AVI), and wanted to get $94 million in additional funding for schools through that move. But Council – which grew worried about implementing a new tax system without completed assessments – opted to delay AVI and raise $20 million through a property tax hike and $20 million in an increase to a business tax known as the use and occupancy tax.
"The administration and the mayor came forth with a proposal that at some point we need to do," said Council President Darrell Clarke of AVI. "We need to stabilize values, we need to make sure it's a fair and equitable process as it relates to real estate taxes. But at the end of the day, this particular proposal wasn't ready. "
Council Thursday made some technical changes to property tax bill, which means final passage won't come until next week. But by an 11-6 vote they gave final approval to the use and occupancy tax hike – a tax that the business community had lobbied hard to defeat.
After the votes, Clarke said this budget was a done deal, noting "whatever we did today, is it."
6:26 pm - Council members are gathering after another long day of budget deliberations and we're hearing they're likely to stay on course with a deal that would delay Nutter's property tax overhaul for a year and provide up to $40 million in funding to the school district.
Nutter had sought to immediately move to a property tax system based on market values, known as the Actual Value Initiative (AVI), and wanted to get $94 million in additional funding for schools through property taxes. But Council – which grew worried about implementing a new tax system without completed assessments – opted to delay AVI and raise $20 million through a property tax hike and $20 million in an increase to a business tax known as the use and occupancy tax.
We'll update when they get going.