A tense exchange between Philadelphia’s chief assessment officer and a lawmaker worried about gentrification in her district punctuated a City Council hearing about property taxes.
Councilmember Quetcy Lozada asked James Aros Jr., the assessment chief, about the number of homes his team actually looks at each year. Aros responded that all 580,000 parcels in Philadelphia should be reviewed — in-person or digitally — at least every six years.
However, he went on, the office does not currently track the metric, and he would not commit to a timeline for when they could start collecting that information…