FairPlay AI’s Post

Is your neighborhood tax assessor playing favorites? A new study on Philadelphia’s property tax fairness took a hard look at residential tax assessments — and, spoiler alert: It’s not all brotherly love in the City of Brotherly Love. 🏠💔 This study by the Reinvestment Fund dives deep into Philadelphia's 2023 residential taxes, and here’s what they found: Neighborhoods with higher percentages of Black, Hispanic, or low-income residents are more likely to experience: • Inaccurate assessments • Over-assessments • Under-assessment of high-value properties relative to low-value ones The study is a stark reminder that seemingly objective systems can hide biases that hit vulnerable communities the hardest. It’s also a clear call to cities across the country to take a hard look at their own assessment practices. If we can build AI that outsmart grandmasters at chess, surely we can design a system that fairly assesses property taxes — no matter the neighborhood.