Photo: Nutter sticker seen around town.

Last week, state Rep. Mike O’Brien (D-Phila) held a news conference in Harrisburg suggesting diverting Pennsylvania gaming revenues to the Philadelphia School District was a better idea than Mayor Nutter’s Actual Value Initiative plan, which would re-assess property taxes in the city.

Today, State Sen. Larry Farnese, of Philadelphia, called Nutter’s idea “a back-door tax increase,” adding, “It’s also not the only way to help the financially struggling School District of Philadelphia.”

Farnese was joined by a coalition of Philadelphia Democrats from both Harrisburg and Philadelphia City Hall, calling on Nutter to back down from his proposal…or be destroyed.

According to a PA Dems press release, Nutter’s initiative would affect more than half-a-million Philadelphians, and that ain’t right. Sen. Farnese plans to introduce legislation which would allow City Council to either delay AVI “or to fund schools through other taxing alternatives.”

The Philadelphia Delegation goes on to say Nutter’s idea is not “revenue-neural,” as it claims.

“The City collected approximately $1.047 billion in property taxes in the last tax year ($458 million for the City’s general fund and $589 million for the School District),” they write. “If the reassessment was truly revenue neutral, then the City’s total property tax collections after reassessment would be approximately $1.047 billion.  In an honest, revenue-neutral process, a city would determine the total property values and then adjust the millage rate to ensure that the total revenue did not result in a windfall.”