Trash pickup: Council mulls $200 condo tax credits

Condominium owners cheered yesterday as City Council moved forward with legislation that would give condo and co-op owners who live in buildings serviced by private trash pickups a tax break to make up for the municipal trash service cost included in their property taxes.

“Individuals pay the same real estate taxes as other property owners in the city,” said Gary Krimstock, counsel for Greater Philadelphia Condo Managers Association. “But they don’t receive trash collection.”

Streets Commissioner Clarena Tolson said the bill, which would give a $200 credit to many city condo owners, would cost the city’s general fund $5.6 million each year.

Councilman Jim Kenney said that only 3,700 of those condominiums choose to be serviced by city trash collection, which mandates that residents either have a Dumpster or line up bags of trash on the curb.

“People have been treated unfairly at least 10 years, probably 30. If you want to do a counting analysis, let’s figure out what services condo owners haven’t been getting for at least 10 years,” said Kenney, who sponsored the bill, along with Councilman Frank DiCicco. “It would certainly pay for the tax credit now.”

Detention center costs rise $16M

Also given preliminary approval yesterday was a bill allocating an additional $16 million to the Youth Studies Center being built in West Philadelphia, which has run over budget due to weather-related construction delays and problems with the initial contractor.

Most of the money would come from a fund created by the state for public safety projects as reimbursement for some of the costs to design the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility.