Nearly 10,000 tax-abated properties will return to Philadelphia's tax rolls over the next five years adding an estimated $55 million in new revenue, City Controller Alan Butkovitz said Thursday.
Butkovitz said 9,683 properties will have their 10-year tax abatements expire from the 2017 to 2021 fiscal years. Of the $55 million in new real estate tax revenues the city will be able to collect, around $30 million would go to the Philadelphia School District with the remaining $25 million earmarked to the city's general fund, according to Butkovitz.
Butkovitz noted that 2018 and 2019 will mark the years when most properties return to the tax rolls with 2,807 and 2,540, respectively, which he attributes to the end of a new construction surge that occurred more than a decade ago before the 2008 Great Recession. He said the parcels added over the five-year period will add about $3.9 billion to the city's total taxable value.
The City Controller's economic report released Thursday said tax revenues for July climbed 6% from the year-ago period to $213.7 million. The revenue breakdown included $180.1 million into the general fund and $33.6 million from the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, which was established as an oversight board for Philadelphia by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1991.
The City of Philadelphia is rated A-plus by S&P Global Ratings, A2 by Moody's Investors Service and A-minus by Fitch Ratings. Moody's recently assigned Philadelphia School District bonds an underlying rating of Ba3 and an A2 rating under the Pennsylvania school district pre-default enhancement program. Fitch Ratings rates the district's debt with an enhanced rating of A-plus and an underlying rating of BB-minus.
