Heard in the Hall

Mark McDonald was the only print journalist who ever raised the question as to why so much in property taxes owed to the city for schools and safety never gets collected.

He placed the range of debt to the city as $500 to 700 million. Although he gave print space to Street's fixed belief that this was "bad debt," he also looked around him and saw the real estate boom building on just such properties that Street claimed were unsellable, and the liens uncollectable.

In fact, liens against real property are never "bad debt." You can always sell the property to pay the liens, and if the liens are larger than the value, you have to put a system in place that makes sure auction occurs before that happens.

Right now, after the boom, there are no properties with liens too large to be paid off at foreclosure.

Some of the best neighborhoods owe the most, and some of the worst neighborhoods need new people to have the chance to come in and buy:

www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/delinqbyzip/index_html?skey=pcent&rkey=pcent

Nutter can achieve his goals if he only allows the debt against property to be paid by foreclosing on this property tax debt. This is easy. Rendell did it by selling the lien debt to a private collector.

Nutter can engage this collector to collect city debt at foreclosure. What member of the press, though, is going to question why Street let schools and safety be so underfunded while sitting on a goal mine?

Only McDonald.

Now who is going to ask Council why the city has not collected $300 million in debt to the city a decade old or older?

www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary

There are only about 30,000 properties with liens a decade old or older, but they total over $300 million in unpaid debt to safety, schools, and the city.

Now who is going to press for better schools by covering where the funding comes from -- half of all property taxes go to pay for schools. When a property is sold, the lien is paid, the city gets half, and the schools get half in a lump sum.

What journalist is going to hound the Dept. of Revenue, the City Law Dept. or even try to figure out foreclosures and liens for the sake of good schools you actually want to send your kid to? Who's going to call officials on misinformation about this debt by doing real research, not just copying a press release?

What writer is going to raise the question even as to why Philly has so many zip codes of double digit percentages of owners who owe the city taxes and have not paid their share for schools now, police now, safety now?

www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/delinqbyzip/index_html?skey=pcent&rkey=pcent

I think that most journalists don't want to be bothered with standing in line, getting the info, standing in another line, and having to write an article on exactly what the city could do to do things better. Factchecking is the lifeblood of good government. Street's greatest strength, his claim to fame, is that he counted on how lazy journalists are. You can tell them anything and they'll print it as fact. The truth of city government was a closely held set of confusing numbers were few local journalists wanted to tread.

McDonald was not one of those.

Now who is going to write about how the city can pay for Nutter's ideas? McDonald was the only one who asked why the city owes between $500 million and $700 million in overdue property taxes?

McDonald was the only one who really factchecked. The cornerstone of good government is a journalist who fact checks every item in the press release. Street was a bad one. Street's claim to fame was that he knew that most journalists are lazy and will print something in a press release without checking. The deed record tells you a lot. How could the Naval Home be part of NTI when it was sold to Toll under the Rendell administration? Don't be afraid to show that a pol is lying.

That Nutter likes McDonald is a sure sign of his quality, because McDonald won't let him get away with broad sweeping crowd pleasing assertions that have no basis in reality.

Why borrow to have NTI when the city is owed so much money? McDonald was getting into overdue property tax collection when Street announced collecting $250 million in 9-07. Why so little?

www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary

Nutter's goals are not too lofty. A mayor doesn't have to run the schools himself or call the shots. Just fund them to their required levels. We have the money. It's right there. We just have to collect it. There is no bad debt against real estate. That's a lien.

This debt can be foreclosed on to pay for great schools that you want to send your kids to, enough police, enough ADAs, enough court and quality prison capacity.

We have the cash right there. I think McDonald is the only journalist there that knew how that cash is collected:

www.phillysheriff.com/hometaxlien.htm

Now who is going to ask the questions? How many properties does the city have to have a private foreclosing agency and the city real estate tax unit to pay auction for Nutter's initiatives a month?

If they just sent to sheriff sale the properties that owe a decade or more in taxes, that would be $300 million right there, and the schools get about half, on a mere 30,000 properties. Street just winged this -- he had no idea he would get a surplus from overdue lien payment from market forces driving need for properties.

But what if we have a press corp that understands that this money has to be collected, and not just Mark McDonald?

How would that do? Better than the PPA's ten million or so, ya think? Plus, foreclosing on city lien owing real estate pays of gas, water, and nuisance debts. That goes to paying off the "bad debt" line item on your gas bill and keeps price pressure down. Can PPA do that? So why not cover this issue and not just let McDonald?

With McDonald gone, who is even going to go stand in line after line at city hall, with the early closing offices, and the inefficiencies? Then who will write about how awful it is to have to do that because you can't trust what some bureaucrat in the service of a pol will tell you on property taxes and collection?

Nutter can do everything he proposed in his inaugural speech. He knows that because he knows what the city's revenue sources are. He knows he has to be "tough, but fair" in foreclosing on that debt, and in reviewing where property tax revenue should and can grow.

Nutter knows that having who zip codes with double digit property tax debt, sometimes half of all owners, is unsustainable.

www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/delinqbyzip/index_html?skey=pcent&rkey=pcent

But McDonald was the only one that I am aware ever asked why that is. And McD is the only one who ever remotely suggested that the city needs that money to solve all its problems. He also questioned that it by definition causes mass homelessness (How can selling a vacant lot for back taxes cause homelessness?) But Street cried "housing justice" when asked about why taxes weren't collected. No one ever asked if it was about malleable voting blocs.

No one even ever saw that 1:1 correspondence with bad pols and high property tax nonpayment rates in a zip code. No one even wondered. No one but McDonald asked how high is too high? What are the criteria? When does a property finally get sold for back taxes?

On taxes, which is the alpha and omega of all city projects, the funding source, the limiter, only McDonald tried to go there in a meaningful way.

Now what? Now we have a new set of council dips illegal and unethical right off the bat, who are need lots of docile forgiving voters who are counting on their council rep not to let their property go to sheriff sale.

Now who is going to ask why the city is in debt, borrowing, yet not collecting what is owed for many years?

www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary

Who is going to ask Ed Goppelt why the city owes so much, and why the data the city gives him has appeared to have been tampered with in properties that have been the recipients of Street deals or were generous friends to him? Who is going to write that next FOIA that asks just the right question?

If the DN and Ink can't write a good article everyday on city government, such that you could print them out at the end of the year and have a book that is primer, that is a new "Prayer for the City," that educates the next wonks who'll run the place, then you've failed. With McDonald gone, I wonder who can fill those shoes?

Mark is one of the rare good ones. This is one of the last nails in the DN's coffin, and a real coup for MA Nutter. Congrats Mark!