E-mail from Beth Proko
- First evaluating it without talking with the people who brought it forward is not empowering the public to be a part of the solution.
- There is no loss, only gain by holding the assessed value of a property that has been sitting idle, losing value and city revenue.
- The other taxes that Philly gets are a bonus for them, but it doesn’t mean there would be no gain without those taxes.
- As we discussed repeatedly, it doesn’t have to be the same timeframe. Maybe it’s 5 years for an established business; 10 years for a property that’s been vacant for over 5 years.
- Breathing new life into a building that has sat dormant for years improves neighborhoods, creates jobs, employs contractors, brings more people into the city to spend $$.
The entire idea behind the Philly Plan, is ‘Look…. This worked well for Philly. Let’s take a look at how we can tweak it for Worcester’.
