Sheriff Rochelle Bilal is blaming Philadelphia’s Law Department for her office’s failure to perform one of its core functions: auctioning off tax-delinquent properties. The Mayor’s Office, which appoints the city’s top lawyer, insists it’s the sheriff’s problem to fix. City Council leaders don’t seem to know what’s going on ― or they simply aren’t getting involved.

The result: Millions of dollars in tax revenue is going uncollected and blighted land can’t be auctioned off for potential redevelopment.

As reported by The Inquirer last month, Bilal’s office hasn’t held a tax sale since April 2021, causing a backlog of properties in Common Pleas Court that would have otherwise been sold at auction.

Since January 2022 alone, the city has gone to court to secure orders authorizing the sale of some 1,330 tax-delinquent properties, records show. But the lack of auctions means that property owners have essentially been free to ignore the court notices, even as their tax bills grow.