Title
Authorizing the Committee on Finance to hold hearings examining the current tax structure and cost of government in the City of Philadelphia and how to reform both to increase the City's regional and national economic competiveness, stimulate job growth, and attract and retain residents, and, in furtherance of such investigation, authorizing the issuance of subpoenas to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents to the full extent authorized under Section 2-401 of the Home Rule Charter.
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WHEREAS, Over the past decade, multiple blue-ribbon panels have conducted studies of Philadelphia's tax structure and offered a series of recommendations, including reforming the City's property assessment system, lowering the overall tax burden, and shifting the tax burden from so-called "mobile" to "immobile" tax bases; and
WHEREAS, The "mobile" to "immobile" shift has been framed primarily as a shift away from business and wage taxes and toward property taxes and has become accepted wisdom in some tax reform circles, despite the absence of detailed analysis of how such a shift would impact residents, real estate markets, and the City's tax base; and
WHEREAS, As this spring's discussion about the Actual Value Initiative (AVI) has made clear, dramatic reform of the City's property tax system likely holds unintended consequences, including a potentially significant shift of tax burden from commercial and industrial property owners to residential property owners; and
WHEREAS, The City's ability to buffer this shift of tax burden onto residents with a homestead exemption (should one be authorized by the state) is limited, given that the amount of exemption is capped under state law and that each dollar foregone due to the exemption is paid for by residents and business property owners alike through higher overall real estate tax rates; and
WHEREAS, The unexpectedly high tax real estate rates under discussion in Council this ...
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