Nutter: BRT board must go
He says it's needed 'to restore trust'
The future of the Board of Revision of Taxes provoked a full fledged political battle yesterday, with Mayor Nutter asking board members of the maligned agency to resign.
The seven-member board's resounding answer? No way.
In the wake of a searing investigation by the Inquirer, which revealed a long tradition of mismanagement and flawed property-tax assessments, Nutter yesterday announced what he called the first in a series of steps to reform the BRT.
Saying that he needed to "restore trust" in the BRT, Nutter called on board members to resign voluntarily. He also asked City Council to approve legislation that would strip board members of their salaries - between $70,000 and $75,000 a year for part-time work - and move much of the BRT budget under the authority of the city finance director.
Nutter cannot fire the board members, who are appointed by the Board of Judges of the Philadelphia Courts of Common Pleas.
The BRT board pushed back hard against Nutter's request, saying that they intended to stay on the job, to work on improving the city's property-tax assessment system.
"I will not resign because there's no just cause, no appropriate cause for me to render a resignation," said Chairwoman Charlesretta Meade.
BRT board members said that they have done good work developing the new set of "actual value" property-tax assessments, which were presented to the mayor and Council last week.
"I understand that because of what's been written, I understand that people might not have faith," said board member Robert Nix III. "What we want to do is, we want the opportunity to implement the system. That's all I ask is that we have the opportunity to complete the process."
It isn't clear when these new assessments will take effect. The city now uses a "fractional" system, assessing Philadelphia's 450,000 residential and 125,000 commercial properties at 32 percent of their value and then applying a tax rate. In the actual-value system, approved by the BRT in July, properties will be assessed at 100 percent of their value but taxed at a lower rate.
Councilman Bill Green yesterday made his own move on the BRT, introducing two bills to make over the agency.
One of his proposals is to abolish the BRT, moving its responsibilities into a city department. The other proposal would keep the BRT, but require that board members be appointed by Council and the mayor, instead of the Board of Judges. Both bills would establish an independent board to hear all property-assessment appeals.
Nutter yesterday would not say if he would support the Green measures, although he did promise to work with Council on reforms. *