Opinion: Property Tax Will Not Help Philadelphia

by Tyler Peckham

To me owning my own home has always been one of my biggest goals in life, right up there with getting a wife and having kids. I am also part of what seems to be a more and more common demographic in Philadelphia: those who live in the city and commute to the suburbs for their job. For the past year now I have lived in the vibrant community of Mt. Airy in the Northwest while holding down a job in King of Prussia.

For me it is a nice balance.  I like it so much  that I’ve been looking to buy a house in the city.

The proposed rise in Property Taxes is threatening to bring that to an end. Am I being a bit overdramatic by saying that a rise of 3.85% would really put me over the edge on buying a home in Philadelphia? Not so much, actually. I am a part of the 2009 college class of the recession, and I know in this economy that every dollar counts. I do not rake in a salary of what I would like, or probably should considering what I had to pay for college, but it is just enough to afford a pretty nice row home on a pretty nice street in Philly.

This rise in taxes sends the wrong message to people, well, like me. It only reinforces the already widely-held belief that living in the city is a recipe for being over taxed. I’ve learned to deal with the extra taxes on my income, but now this? While most of my friends that stayed in the area after college seem to have taken refuge in the suburbs after graduation, I have stayed in the city the last three years. For me the cultural benefits of living in the nation’s fifth largest city far outweigh the safety blanket of the towns to its west.

 I am not insensitive to the plight of Philly’s schools, and I was a supporter of Nutter’s Soda Tax (both times). It might not have been a perfect solution, but at least it gives us a choice. It was a tax we could all opt out of by simply choosing not to buy sugary drinks—at least not in the city, anyway. A rise in property taxes will affect everyone living in the city and will probably never be brought back down. It is a permanent message that living in the city is a costly endeavor, and I won’t even get into how the extra parking fees add to the conception that the city is not easy to just ‘drive down and visit’. Parking Wars, anyone?

I’ll still look for that little house in Mt. Airy, but I’ve already put my agent on the lookout for houses in Glenside and Conshohocken. It’s nothing personal Philly, but in this economy, we all have to look out for ourselves.