PHILADELPHIA-City Council President Darrell Clarke is expected to introduce legislation geared to bringing some 40,000 vacant, tax delinquent properties back on the tax rolls.
If successful, the initiate could raise $125 million in revenue for the city. Each year the city spends approximately $20 million for maintenance on these vacant properties, according to The Inquirer.
“We think it's more important in a long-term sense to develop that property and bring it back on the tax rolls," Clarke says. "We get new revenue from those properties, get out of delinquent-tax inventory [and it] creates a revenue stream and different quality of life for these neighborhoods."
Among the key elements of the bills that will go before the City Council is a provision that would allow the city to sell properties in designated development districts at a discounted price if the buyer agrees to begin construction within six months and complete it in two years. The bill puts the discounts from 50% to 90%. See story in The Inquirer.
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