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Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

The new City Controller's website no longer makes available (at least) two city
reports which I would like to locate digitally, and read, especially now in light of the
disastrous future for city residents and landowners as real estate values make
homeownership unaffordable, dramatically reduce the supply of rental housing and
thereby also increase its cost.

As far as I can tell, these are no longer available for download:

- the commissioned budget analysis presented by Joshua Vincent to City Council on
April 29, 2003

- Philadelphia: A New Urban Direction
This book presents a vision of Philadelphia's likely future without change and offers
a comprehensive plan designed to reduce the costs of doing business and improve
overall quality of life to make Philadelphia a preferred place to live, work, and visit.


Would you please have these official documents restored to availability via the city's
internet, and findable via a "SEARCH"?

Thanks you.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I am moving to the Philadelphia area. As I am deciding where
to live, the actual city of Philadelphia is not very attractive
due to the extremely high wage tax and the property taxes. The
Land Value Tax could be used to eventually solve both of these
problems. I am encouraged that Land Value Taxation has
received such attention in Philadelphia, and I hope that a move
to Land Value Taxation to encourage development and discourage
slumlords moves forward. Contrary to the wage tax where people
can be paid under the table, the Land Value Tax cannot be
avoided since the land is there for everyone to see - its
implementation reduces the opportunity for cheating on taxes.

T.H.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:


Advantages of a Land Value Tax
It's worked for other cities.
We know that in Pittsburgh, with just a modest land tax over 85
years, the cost of housing there is just about the lowest in
the country.
We know that in Harrisburg, the number of vacant structures
went from over 4000 to less than 500 after the land tax was
passed.
State or Federal aid is not needed to implement this form of
taxation. If the necessary legislation to implement a Land
Value Tax in Philadelphia is passed, only a change in computer
programming is needed to change the tax bills.
This is a progressive tax. Businesses, developers and groups
such as the Sierra Club and the Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse
agree that the Land Tax would be a good thing.
This is an easy tax to collect and a difficult tax to avoid.
Land is there for everyone to see. You can't put it in a Swiss
bank account. You can't burn it down and you can't move it.
Land has no element of labor in it, land is just what is found
in nature and, therefore, in taxing land we are not taking the
bread from anyone's mouth.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I am doing a project on nursery sites. I chose Philadelphia as my
site I need to know the cost of land in Philadelphia County.
Please E-mail you answer to BlackIce217@college.com

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:


The best tax and the worst tax have been obscured, in the so-
called property tax. Although your house is a product, your
land is a conquest. Although produce is good and conquest is
bad, they are taxed at the same rate of millage. Only against
produce, does punitive taxation impose evil. Only against
conquest, does punitive taxation impose justice.
Without work-value taxation: Land-value taxation is so much
against urban vacancy, it causes improvement; is so much against
idleness, it causes empoloyment; and is so much against enmity,
it causees brotherly love.
If you raise the best tax (just enough to cut the worst tax)
you will give a tax cut the the popular majority; you will give
a wage hike to the popular majority; and you will deserve re-
elestion.
The housing-value tax is the sorst of theft, because it robs
repeatedly from the same piece of work. The land-value tax is
the best of trade, because it rents the realm. Owe for what you
take and not for what you make.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

The time to act on the Land Value Tax is now. You have been
elected to do a job which represents the best interests of all
of the citizens of Philadelphia. Any citizen who gives a damned
about the present and future of this city beyond their current
drive for quick profit supports the adoption of the LVT.

For once, consider the people and the future of the city, not
the slumlords, the Real Estate tycoons and the companies with
huge tracts of land. For once, consider the folks who put you
in the seats that you sit in.

If you have any sense of duty, any sense of fairness, any tiny
bit of memory as to why you entered public service left you will
vote for and approve the Land Value Tax as proposed by Jonathan
Saidel and rehab or totally scuttle the BRT as soon as humanly
possible.

Thank you for your valuable time and kind consideration!

Charles Arthur Towsley, Jr.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I believe a land tax is exactly what Philadelphia needs. So
many abandoned buildings dot our neighborhoods. By
implementing a land tax, many will be encouraged, not
discouraged to improve and maintain their homes.
Other cities like Pittsburg and Harrisburg have had great
success, why not use the same formula for Philadelphia.
State or Federal aid is not needed to implement this form of
taxation. If the necessary legislation to implement a Land
Value Tax in Philadelphia is passed, only a simple change
in computer programming is needed to change the tax bills.

Lets revitalize our neighborhoods and make Philadelphia
the beautiful city our founding fathers where proud to call
home.

Sincerely,
Nicole Highland

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
I hope that all of you have had the opportunity to relax a
bit this summer. When you return to your responsibilities, I
would like you to consider an issue that is very much on the
mind of many Philadelphians: tax reform.
As you know, tax reform consists of three interrelated
aspects: real estate, wage and business. This past year,
Councilman Rizzo and others exerted themselves to defer
inequitable property tax assessments for a number of their
constituents . However, as you all know, actions of this sort
are at best stopgap measures that fall far short of the need
that exists for broader tax reform for our city.
I have written to all of you previously about the merits of
Land Value Taxation. I have even had occasion to speak to most
of the candidates for At-Large seats on this topic as well.
Most of you chose not to take a position for or against it,
alluding to its "unproven" record. (Councilman Rizzo informed
me of his opposition, but he can certainly change his mind, as
any of us can!) I urge you to do your homework on Land Value
Tax. The Center for the Study of Economics’ website,
http://urbantools.net/contact.html, provides a wealth of
information on LVT in various cities and countries worldwide.
Those few of you who were present on April 29, 2003 when a
standing room only crowd filled the City Council chamber surely
must comprehend that Land Value Taxation enjoys broad-based
support among Philadelphians. You may also recall that this
number was by no means dominated by any one racial or
socioeconomic group; rather, persons from all races and
socioeconomic levels were represented. I urge you to read the
testimonies of the forty-three people, many of them working
class individuals, who took the time away from work to speak
passionately of their support for LVT at
http://www.hallwatch.org/news/1051731358712.
Those of you who wonder about its track record in
Pennsylvania should find the testimony of the Comptroller of
Allentown, PA particularly compelling.
Land value taxation more equitably distributes the real
estate tax burden, discourages blight and raises land values,
all of which would make Philadelphia more attractive to
investors and potential residents. I urge you to educate
yourself on the issue of Land Value Taxation and to come out in
favor of it in this election year.
Christine M. Schwarz

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

As an active member of the City Controlllers land Value Tax
Coalition, The ULC has participated in many meetings with the
City Controller and His Staff to become familure with this issue,
we have testified Twice regarding this matter, once at a meeting
of city council and once before the Tax Reform Commission.

The Land Value Tax is an instrument whose time has come as we
seek real tax reform in Philadelphia. The land Value Tax will
spur new housing and business development by placing the tax
burdon more on the land as opposed to what sets on the land. It
will provide an impetus to property owners to maintain their
properties and repair their properties when needed because they
will not face increased tax assessments for so doing. Currently
our tax structure punishes people by increasing their tax burdon
when they make repairs.

The inactment of the LVT will send a message to suburbanites and
people across the nation that Philadelphia is serious about tax
reform. With our continuing loss of population, that for the
first time in the cities history will move it out of the nations
top five city ranking, tax reform to reverse this decline and
bring new residents to the city is paramount.

Lastly as stated in my testimony before city council relative to
this matter, "The Money Is In The Land."

Rev. Bruce M. Edwards
ULC President

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

If you have one shred of integrity or honesty left in your
collective bodies you will stop hedging on the Land Value Tax
and actually put it to work.

The gross inequities of the current BRT system sshould have us
revolting in the streets. Taxation without representation is
unconstitutional. You all had better start learning to
represent something besides your own petty interests and/or
getting family members or people who lie about their degrees
good jobs.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:


A previous write sent you the following:

Home owners want Land Tax.
Business owners want Land Tax.
The working class wants Land Tax.
Real Estate professionals want Land Tax.

Will you all, for once, do what is sensible and just, or will
you as usual do what serves the slumlords, Sunoco, PECO, et al.?

You had better remember that they have the money but we have the
votes and there is a real and growing dis-satisfaction with
business as usual at City Hall. It is palpable in every public
discussion about you people.

The special interests can buy your attentions, they cannot buy
our votes. Think about November, you might end up as one of us,
the majority who has no representation in our local government.
But then again, you will have your patronage connections to fall
back on and end up running PGW or if you are a relative of John
Street a million dollar contract counting widgets in a basement
somewhere.

Politicians that I used to have faith in and vote for no longer
have my respect, nor my vote and I will actively campaign to
shake up your house.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I have just received a report from Jon Saidel's office. Can
anyone of you explain to me why the land UNDER my house is
assessed at $3,120 while the land UNDER the house nextdoor is
assesed at $789??

Can any single one of you explain why my property assessment and
taxes are increased yearly and the property nextdoor has
remained at $10,000 over the past seven years? Why am I paying
$864.74 in taxes when the property nextdoor has paid $264.45 for
the past seven?

I can see where you nail me on the value of my property
everytime I improve something on the outside of my house, (which
I will no longer do), but how can you tax at different rates two
identical pieces of dirt?

This is absurd, unfair and cruel. I would like a logical
explanation from somebody in that brain trust you have at Broad
and Market Streets.

Good luck,

Charles A. Towsley

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:


Someone, somewhere in this city must be profiting or getting
some advantage from the current Byzantine tax system or any
intelligent body of elected citizens would have pushed us into
the Land Value Tax years ago.

Does the BRT have a syphon sending money into the pockets of
city council or something? Or does the idea of Sunoco and other
large landholders cutting back on campaign financing scare you
all?

You are all elected to do what is fair by and for the people.
Should you fail to enact the Land Value Tax you will have proven
once and for all that the people are hardly your concern. You
take away enough of our money for stupid programs, if you have
to take from us at least stop doing it stupidly.

Thanks for your time, now go out and do something of some use to
someone.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Ask yourselves, honestly, how would you like living nextdoor to
an abandoned house? Would drug dealers using the property
bother you? Would the pigeons and cats defecating on your
property annoy you? Would the hookers using the back porch for
liasons disgust you? Would you enjoy young men urinating
against your house?

For far too long slumlords have been allowed to hold abandoned
properties at reduced taxes and the above situations have become
commonplace. The slumlords get a tax write off their property at
the end of the year, people who live next to the messes that
they create have the usual onerous property tax and the joy of
having the value of their property reduced because of what sits
nextdoor.

If you have any sense of fairness or equity it is obvious to a
cross-eyed duck that two adjoining pieces of property should be
taxed at the same rate. Explain to me why I am taxed $864 per
year on my house while the exact same house nextdoor pays $200
merely because it is vacant? I would really like to have that
explained in a sane in logical manner.

At this point I refuse to spend money on my residence to improve
it because you will tax me more for my efforts. I am going to
let my house rundown on the outside just for the tax break. You
in your inability to fairly tax the citizenry have encouraged
this. Some of my neighbors have honestly told me that they do
this same thing to keep their taxes from going up.

Charles A. Towsley, Jr.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

The School District of Phila. is closing 10 pre-school
centers. Additionally, they are displacing 27 pre-school
classrooms to make way for the Focus on Four classrooms.
On the one hand, I am pleased that we are moving in the
direction of universal PK. However, these changes create a
void for most parents who work. The Focus on Four
classroom is a 8:45 to 2:45 day. What are working parents
to do for the uncovered part of the day when they work? In
the past, the Child Care Centers had provided parents with
a certified classroom teacher, with the wraparound service
needed before and after school.
I think Mr. Vallas, as well as, our elected officials need to
address the fact that today's parents need an extended day
for their pre-school children. The necessary changes can be
made within the existing structure as opposed to closing
centers/classrooms creating a problem for parents who
want the pre-school experience Mr. Vallas agrees is
needed.
Keep the Focus on Four AND the before and after service
provided by the Child Care Centers.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I THINK THAT THE LAND TAX WOULD BE A BRILLIANT IDEA. THIS
CITY NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS TO SHOW THE HOME OWNER THAT
KEEPING A GOOD HOME AND MAKING MULTIPLE IMPROVEMENTS IS
WARRANTED BY THE CITY WITHOUT PUNISHING THE HOMEOWNER WITH MORE
TAXES. PEOPLE HERE PAY ENOUGH AND ARE JUST MAKING ENDS MEET.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I am writing to urge your support of the Land Tax proposal.

Thank you,
Joseph Piller

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:


All the vibrant advantages of living in Philadelphia are
threatened by a backwards, antiquated tax system. The land tax
puts the incentives exactly where they need to be -- encouraging
improvement and development rather than punishing it. The best
way to eliminate blight is not by knocking down buildings but by
taxing owners of dilapidated properties into actually doing
something. The land tax and a real reduction in the wage tax
are the most important issues facing the city, and I will base
my vote (and encourage everyone I know to do the same) on who
supports these crucial reforms.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I am in support of the Land Tax instead of the old-fashioned
property tax. I don't like being punished for keeping my house
and neighborhood in good shape. The individuals who refuse to do
so should have to pick up the tab for their own negligence. Yes,
I think the Land Tax is a good idea.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I attended the hearings on the Land Tax on Tuesday and stayed all
day. I testified in favor of the Land Tax. I spent most of the
previous day working on my statement and copying some quotes from
Kunstler's book "Home from Nowhere" supporting the Land Tax for
cities. I've taken the time to educate myself about the Land Tax
over the past several months. It so obviously good for cities
that I support it EVEN THOUGH MY OWN TAXES WOULD GO UP BECAUSE I
HAVE A BIG YARD.

Why haven't you all bothered to take the time to educate
yourselves? I was shocked that so few Council members attended
the hearings. You could have had all your questions about this
system answered in one day. Councilman Clarke and Councilman
Goode, who at least attended for part of the time, had legitimate
questions and were told that an upcoming expert would answer them
for them, but they didn't stick around to hear the answers.
(Councilman Clarke: The answer about your neighborhood
supermarket is this -- smaller neighborhood supermarkets would
actually enjoy a competitive advantage over mega-supermarkets
elsewhere, because their land tax would be lower. The Land Tax
encourages compact neighborhood businesses and discourages giant
big-box suburban-style wastelands.)

I am particularly steamed at my own representative, Councilman
Nutter, who did not show up at all. He had assured me at another
meeting that he was interested in studying the Land Tax. I hope
he had a very good reason for missing these hearings. I will
send him a copy of my testimony as well as that of Albert S.
Hartheimer, whose two-page statement was brilliantly
comprehensive yet concise. I hope you will all read at least that
one. It shows how there are really NO "losers" under the Land Tax
system because even those whose property taxes are sure to go up
(e.g. car dealers) will benefit from the increased productivity
and tax base in the city and in their own neigborhood.

Thanks to David Cohen for listening far longer than anyone else
did, and asking intelligent questions.

I am seriously thinking of basing my votes for Council on the
Land Tax issue alone. It is that important.

Sincerely,
Sandy Sorlien
Roxborough

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