Mayor Mum About Why He Failed To Pay Property Taxes

by KYW's Mike Dunn

Saying it's personal, Philadelphia Mayor Street (above in file photo) is refusing to clarify why he went three years without paying property taxes on two of his properties (see previous story). 

At issue are tax bills for two of Mayor Street's properties that had not been paid since 2003. Street paid the nearly $5,000 bill only after being told of the matter by a reporter last week. In his first public comments on this, Street said there's confusion over the bills, and said he won't try to straighten it out in the media:

"That's personal, and I'm not going to get into how I pay my bills. Legitimate taxes weren't paid on time, and when I found out, I paid them. And I think that's good enough."

Street did overpay on his two other properties, and says he could have but did not ask that the overage be applied to what he owed. This comes about two weeks after Street launched a major crackdown on property tax delinquents (see related stories).