Fumo keeps big tax break The city held the taxable value of his home, for sale at $7 million, at $250,000.

State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo has put his mansion up for sale for $7 million.

But the city will continue to tax it for at least the next year as if it were worth just $250,000 - thanks in part to votes by two city officials with strong ties to Fumo.

By a 4-3 vote, the Philadelphia Board of Revision of Taxes on Thursday rejected a move to immediately reassess Fumo's 27-room, four-story home in Spring Garden.

Among the board members who voted to delay a reappraisal were Joseph Russo, president of the South Philadelphia charity at the center of a pending corruption case against Fumo. He also has worked as a real-estate agent for Fumo, according to sources and documents.

Another was real estate broker Harvey Levin, who has donated $32,000 to Fumo's campaign funds since 2000. Levin, too, has had a business relationship with Fumo, doing appraisals of some Fumo properties.

Tax board member Robert N.C. Nix 3d pushed for the reassessment after the news broke that Fumo had put his mansion on the block to raise money for his criminal defense.

Nix sought to have the tax board review comparable properties and hike the value of Fumo's home for the 2008 tax year.

Kevin Feeley, a spokesman for the board, said the board majority believed it would be wrong - and possibly illegal - to single out Fumo's place for a "spot reassessment." Instead, Feeley said, the board will reassess Fumo, with others, for the 2009 tax year.

Along with Levin and Russo, the board members voting against an immediate tax increase were James Dintino, a Republican ward leader, and Alan Silberstein, a former president judge of Municipal Court.

Joining Nix in support of an immediate tax hike for the Fumo property were board chairwoman Charlesretta Meade, a lawyer, and new member Russell Nigro Jr., a former state Supreme Court justice.

Nigro said yesterday that the matter amounted to an "easy vote" for him, given the $7 million asking price.

"I'm not suggesting that he should be punished, or that he should be treated differently from anyone similarly situated," he said. "But there has to be some upward increase."

Nigro and Fumo were once allies, but are now at political odds; Nigro said that discord played no role in his vote.Levin didn't respond to messages left at his office requesting comment. Russo didn't respond to a message on his cell phone.

Silberstein declined to comment, referring questions to chairwoman Meade, who did not return telephone calls. Nix would have no comment, Feeley said. Dintino could not be reached.

Fumo is charged with defrauding the South Philadelphia charity Citizens Alliance for Better Neighborhoods, as well as another nonprofit, the Independence Seaport Museum. Prosecutors say he also misused his staff for personal benefit and tried to obstruct their investigation.

Fumo arranged for millions in funding for Citizens Alliance. Though he holds no official position with the charity, prosecutors argue that he controls it.

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn denied Fumo's motion to dismiss the 139-count indictment, rejecting Fumo's argument the charges were unconstitutionally vague.

A Fumo spokesman said the house on Green Street, near 22d, is one of just a handful of single-family homes on the block and has by far the highest valuation.

"His asking price is just that," Gary Tuma wrote in an e-mail. "It remains to be seen what the property actually sells for."

Tuma added: "Also, it is being sold furnished."

Fumo bought the house 13 years ago for $175,000 and then spent heavily to enlarge and renovate it. It features a basement shooting range, an underground-tunnel entrance and a sidewalk with heating coils buried in it to melt snow.

Prosecutors allege that a Fumo staffer spent 18 months overseeing the renovations at taxpayer expense.

City records show that the BRT last hiked the value of the property for taxable year 2003, raising its total value $50,000 to its current level of $250,000.

Under the city's convoluted tax system, taxes are applied to 32 percent of that so-called Market Value, which is supposed to represent what the home could sell for on the market.

For Fumo, it works out this way: 32 percent of $250,000 equals a value for tax purposes - the so-called Assessed Value - of $80,000. At the city's current tax rate of 8.26 percent, his yearly tax bill is $6,611.

If the property were valued at $7 million, his tax bill would be $185,000.

In August, the BRT hiked assessments for about 390,000 taxpayers - 7 out of 10 homeowners. The sweeping reevaluation boosted their 2008 taxes by an average of almost 8 percent.

Feeley said the city's computerized system missed Fumo's idiosyncratic house because it did not automatically find comparable properties.

Fumo, with numerous allies in state and local government positions, has long been one of the state's most powerful and effective politicians.

Both Levin and Russo have longstanding ties to the senator.

Fumo over the years has used Levin as an appraiser for his private real-estate holdings, according to someone with knowledge of the properties. Levin is a longtime friend of Fumo's who has socialized with him at the mansion, the source said.

Levin has also worked as a consultant to Citizens Alliance.

Two of Fumo's closest allies, former aide Ruth Arnao and current staffer Rosanne Pauciello, have worked as real estate brokers with Levin's firm, Keystone Appraisal, state records show. Arnao, former executive director of Citizens Alliance, also is charged in the corruption case.

Russo, too, has real estate connections to Fumo.

Multiple Listing Service documents show that Russo was the listing agent for a Fumo property - a bar with four apartments in South Philadelphia - that the senator tried to sell this year. The listing was withdrawn Oct. 1, the records say.

According to evidence presented in the Fumo criminal case, Russo was listed not only as the president of the Citizens Alliance charity, but also as its secretary and treasurer.

At a June hearing, FBI agent Vicky Humphries read testimony that Russo had given the grand jury investigating Fumo.

Russo told the grand jury that he didn't really know why he had been given the title of president and didn't understand spending decisions he approved.

"I didn't know nothing," he testified.

Despite the two men's ties to Fumo, city ethics rules did not require them to abstain from Thursday's BRT vote, said J. Shane Creamer Jr., executive director of the city Board of Ethics.

They would have had to abstain only if they had a "financial interest" in the decision, he said.

The news of Fumo's big asking price sent some Philadelphians to the public Web site for the assessment body to compare their valuations and taxes with the state senator's.

Some were left irate.

Jay Kottoff, 57, a general contractor whose home is near's Fumo, said he found the disparity as "bordering on infuriating."

"Let's be fair," Kottoff said. "I don't have a problem paying taxes based on the fair market value of our house. But if Vince Fumo is asking 10 times the value of my house, he should be paying 10 times the taxes."

BRT board members are chosen by city Common Pleas Court judges. Often, names are submitted by city Democratic and Republican Party leaders, said former chairman David B. Glancey. "Though the process seems overly political I believe in the long run that it works," he said. Once on the board, he said, members are "entirely independent."

Glancey, who retired earlier this year after 18 years as BRT chairman, also believes the board's computers might have missed the mansion.

"I can assure you that no one called and said, 'This is the senator's property, please overlook it,' " he said.

"It doesn't excuse the fact that someone should have looked at it, but I think people were just overwhelmed with their regular work. My best guess is it simply fell through the cracks."