DAILY NEWS: Last Thursday City Council vote to put off the Actual Value Initiative property tax fix for another year came as no great surprise. But that lack of surprise is testament to how complicated the fix for a broken tax system has become, and with every new data point and economic analysis on AVI that was released, it got even more so. Within a matter of weeks, the estimated aggregate value of the city’s properties dropped by $40 billion, which drove up the necessary millage rate to a point where early expectations of AVI — that many homeowners would see a drop in their taxes, and that enough mechanisms would be put in place to mitigate the steeper increases — got turned on its head. Although we hate the delay because of how long AVI has already taken, we almost see the wisdom in holding off. This delay means that Council had to find a new way to find money for the school district, and this time, it reverted to form: To raise $40 million for the schools ($50 million less than the district was hoping for), Council hiked the property tax, for the third time in three years. MORE
PHAWKER: Two words. Soda. Tax.