Deadline could be extended for Philly’s new low-income real estate tax freeze program | City Council roundup
The program freezes the amount low-income homeowners pay on their property taxes even if their assessments or tax rates increase.
The deadline for low-income homeowners in Philadelphia to apply for a new property tax relief program aimed at preventing families from being displaced by gentrification may be extended until Sept. 30 under a new proposal.
Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Rue Landau on Thursday introduced a bill to extend the application deadline for the Low-income Real Estate Tax Freeze program, or LITX, from Feb. 28 to the end of September, when other tax relief program applications are also due.
The program, which was created by legislation authored by Gauthier, freezes the amount people owe on their city real estate taxes even if their assessments or tax rates increase. To be eligible, homeowners who are single must make $33,500 or less per year. Married couples are eligible if they make $41,500 or less.
» READ MORE: Here’s how Philadelphia homeowners can apply for the city’s low-income real estate tax freeze program
Gauthier said only 1,700 people had applied by the end of January, despite an estimated 62,000 homeowners being eligible for the program, which she described as “a vehicle to protect some of the most vulnerable homeowners in the city, who are overwhelmingly Black and brown.”
“We have always been a city of homeownership, and that has rang true up and down the socioeconomic spectrum,” Gauthier said in a speech at Council. “We instituted this program so that we could stop displacement as it relates to increases in property taxes.”
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s administration supports the extension, Gauthier said. Gauthier’s legislation creating the program was made possible by a state law authored by State Rep. Jared Solomon, a Northeast Philly Democrat, authorizing local tax-freeze programs.
What was this week’s highlight?
Bills, bills, bills: Council appears to have awakened from its legislative slumber.
After weeks of moving at a remarkably slow pace, Council on Thursday approved a slew of ordinances. The bills approved Thursday included matters of hyperlocal concern, such as authorizing a sidewalk cafe for the Bake’n Bacon restaurant in Councilmember Mark Squilla’s South Philly-based 1st District and green-lighting bike lanes in Councilmember Jeffery “Jay” Young Jr.’s North Philly-based 5th District.
They also included a $91 million midyear budget transfer that provides $45 million in funding to help Philadelphia prepare for 2026, when the city will host the MLB All-Star Game, part of the FIFA World Cup, and the Semiquincentennial, the official celebration of America’s 250th birthday.
But the return to considering actual bills has not diminished lawmakers’ appetite for approving numerous resolutions, which are commemorative or symbolic statements of Council’s will.
This week, Council considered resolutions recognizing March as Irish American Heritage Month and Women’s History Month. Sláinte, lasses!
Quotable
Fresh praise: That sure is a roundabout way of saying, “In West Philadelphia, born and raised …”
Council on Thursday approved a resolution by Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. renaming the 2000 block of North 59th Street as Will Smith Way “to honor his legacy and lasting impact on the City of Philadelphia, the nation, and the world.”