Three-thousand letters marked "return to sender" were not enough to convince a majority of City Council members to vote in favor of considering Councilman Frank DiCicco’s bills to temporarily freeze property taxes at last year’s rates.
Members decided to table DiCicco’s legislation last Thursday with a 9-7 vote.
To dramatize what he said was evidence of flaws in the city’s Board of Revision of Taxes, the councilman had begun the session by hauling in several sacks of undeliverable mail.
DiCicco said he had spent nearly $30,000 from his campaign coffers to mail 31,000 letters and appeals forms to First District residents who had received property-tax increases following the latest round of reassessments.
Eventually, 3,000 were returned because they had been sent to vacant lots, abandoned properties or the wrong person. DiCicco said he got the addresses for his district from the tax board’s files.
"Why are we spending all of this money to do mailings to properties that don’t have the proper names of the owners?" he asked Monday. "There is a problem here."
Councilmembers were surprised when DiCicco called for a vote on his legislation. DiCicco explained he was trying to trigger some action on the issue.
If the bills were passed, DiCicco said, "that would put the pressure on all of us in Council and the administration to come up with a solution to change the way we are doing tax reevaluations in the city."
DiCicco said he never intended for the bills to enact a permanent change — such a move would cost the city $25 million this year alone. He explained he wanted to force Council and the administration to act on the other property-tax bills that have been introduced.
"I don’t want to throw the budget out of whack," the councilman said, "but I certainly don’t want a [tax] windfall."
Voting to table the legislation were Frank Rizzo Jr., Rick Mariano, Blondell Reynolds Brown, Wilson Goode Jr., Joan Krajewski, Brian O’Neill, Donna Miller, Jannie Blackwell and Darrell Clarke.
DiCicco, James Kenney, Anna Verna, Michael Nutter, Marian Tasco, David Cohen and Angel Ortiz voted in favor. Thacher Longstreth was absent for the vote.
This is not the last Council will hear of this legislation, DiCicco promised.
"Unless there are some dramatic responses and serious negotiations," he said, "I intend to call it up every time we sit in Council."
Clock ticking on IKEA deal
Within one week, the city will know whether IKEA will build a store at Columbus Boulevard and Snyder Avenue.
For the property to be rezoned from industrial to commercial use before the end of the year, Councilman DiCicco would have to introduce legislation by next Thursday. The Swedish furniture retailer has told the city if the changes are not made, it will construct a store in South Jersey instead.
IKEA wants to open a 300,000-square-foot site on the vacant CSX Corp. rail-yard property by spring 2004. The new store is expected to employ 500 people and haul in $100 million in annual sales.
Company officials have said they must begin construction by this spring to meet that deadline. If the rezoning is delayed, the company’s schedule will be derailed. To avoid any such problems, IKEA is reportedly eyeing another property, in South Jersey.
Rezoning the plot in Philadelphia has not been a simple procedural matter. A group of interested parties, including Local 1291 of the International Longshoremen’s Association, the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, state Sen. Vince Fumo and state Rep. Bill Keller, is lobbying to preserve the land for industrial use. They see the property as integral to the expansion of commerce at the port.
On Monday, DiCicco said negotiations were ongoing. He seemed to resent accusations from IKEA supporters that he was blocking a business that would be good for the city.
"To put everything on this one site and try and make me look as though I’m the obstruction isn’t fair," he said.
Many people employed by port-related business live in DiCicco’s district, he noted. The councilman also commented that the issue became more complex when the federal government last month picked the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal to be a strategic military seaport — a move in itself expected to increase port business.
Feds pave way for runways
Philadelphia International Airport is getting special attention from the federal government.
On Monday, the city announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation had included the airport on a list of seven transportation projects around the country that will receive expedited environmental reviews.
Airport officials have been studying ways to improve air traffic and increase capacity at Philadelphia International. One solution is a $1-billion plan to build new runways and reconfigure the existing airfield.
Before construction begins, the Federal Aviation Administration requires an environmental-impact study to measure the potential effect on the natural surroundings.
A task force comprised of Cabinet-level officials will oversee the review process and ensure it is not delayed.
"We are excited by our selection as a priority project by the secretary of transportation," stated the city’s director of aviation, Charles J. Isdell, "and hope this streamlining process will enable us to reduce delays at Philadelphia International Airport more quickly."
Speed is relative when it involves a $1-billion construction project at the 19th-busiest airport in the country. Even with priority status, the new runways reportedly will not be operational until 2010.
