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Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Recently, through the efforts of Ed McLaughlin and his staff at
L&I a complete audit was done of the 800 block of South Saint
Bernard Street in Cedar Park. The results should give BRT pause
to actually go out and assess neighborhoods, not just guess
property values.

The BRT has many homes listed and taxed as singl;e family homes
when in fact these Victorian twins have been subdivided into
multiple apartments. The city is loosing money on every one of
these properties.

The BRT has allowed vacant properties to be left unassessed for
at least seven years and their values and taxes have not
increased one bit during this lapse. I am taxed on an
increasing basis because I live in a "hot neighborhood", Cedar
Park. Does vacant property not increase when a neighborhood
gets "hot"?

The vacant property next-doore is assessed for less that 1/4 of
my property on the value of the land under it. BRT justifies
this by saying that in the Commonwealth the value of the
property sitting on this soil is considered in the assessment.
Funny the Commonwealth also insists on annual assessments, not
gustimates in class 1 cities. Does BRT get to pick and chose
which state regulations they care to comply with?

My house is taxed at the same rate as comparable twin Victorians
on this block, in some cases higher. Funny, I would think that
by living next to one of Charles Georges pigeon coop/crime
magnets my quality of life would suffer, as it does and I would
be given a break based on that. Oh, no, that would require
thought and effort. Cool how if I try to sell my house and get
our of this thing called Philadelphia I could not get full
market value for my house because no-one wants to live next to a
property that has been abandoned for 22 years and has used
condoms laying all over the back porch and bushes and an alley
that smells like urine.

The entire system based on assessments by BRT is slap dash,
unfair, illogical and Byzantine. We wonder why businesses and
residents are trying to get out of this city yet we give them
every possible reason to do so and counter with a City Council
so busy on cell phones that they do not consider the legislation
that is put in front of them. Not to mention an Executive
office more concerned with syphoning favors off to one
neighborhood and some good friends than actually guiding a city
in peril.

It is all just to much to ignore now. Get your stuff together
guys or the next election is going to be a blood bath for you.
When I hear African American ladies saying that they hate Street
and think Blackwell has to finally go it gives me hope that
change can happen in this city.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

It is time for you to show concern for the citizens of
Philadelphia by voting for a cap of 10% on THIS YEAR'S property
taxes. The entire process is so convoluted no one can
understand it. You, as an elected officials, put in office by
the people, should represent the people. It is time for a
serious overhaul of our taxing process. Whether that be a land
tax or not it is your obligation to determine a more equitable
tax system. Philadelphia is losing residents. This is your
opportunity to make this a city where people want to live. I
have lived in Philadelphia my entire life without ever a thought
of moving ... until my property taxes were increased this year
by 100%. This is outrageous. As a widow on a fixed income you
will be helping to drive me out of Philadelphia unless there is
serious attention paid to long-time city residents and the
amount of property tax increases. A decrease in the wage tax is
not the answer here. Please vote to override Mayor Street's
veto of this cap on Property Taxes.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
I am writing in reference to taxes on my property. I have
lived in Phila. all my life and have no intentions to move. I
love my neighborhood, but it is getting to a point where I will
be forced to leave due to the increase in real estate taxes. We
are on a fixed income, and both myself and my husband are
disabled and income is limited. I don't think that we can go on
with the increasing taxesk, and I hope someone comes up with a
solution.
Thank you, Ann Sosalski

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:when is enough tax enough. we
have to balance our bujets when you wont. also home esimated
taxes are wrong. when homes are sold there have been numerous up
dates such as new roof, heaters, siding and on and on. well for
a single person we have to skimp and save just for 1 of them and
work it in to get it done. we are not marrieed and do not have
two incomes. just one, it appears that your goverment wants to
kick us out of house and home, so we end up as street people.
this is not right nor fair to the working class being single or
married. your laws are wrong and many people will loose there
homes if we do-not stand together. when is enough tax enough,
what do you do with all the moneies, 1 city block may have 30
homes at 5,000. per house than x that by 500 blocks, without
bussinesses i got the picture do you!

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I don't mind paying my property tax. I mind that there are great
disparities on my block in the rate that equivalent properties
are assessed.

A shell can have such low taxes that it disincentivizes the owner
to do work on it. Fixing up your house will cost you. The answer
is a land based tax that does not penalize those who put their
money in the outside as well as the inside of the house.

This simple reform would beautify Philadelphia and reinvigorate
the the tax base. More people would stay in Philly, and more
people would come to visit and live in Philly.

The outer condition of your house should not be a proxy to
estimate what the owner can afford in property tax. Plenty of
owners can afford to keep their houses and apartments in better
condition than they do. Without a land-based tax, it is a poor
business decision to paint, plant trees, or put planters out. It
might increase your assessment.

Also, Philadelphia can gain real revenue by simply collecting the
taxes already owed it. In my booming neighborhood, there are
overdue property tax accounts on every block that stretch back
several years, even decades. When the houses finally sell, they
typically sell at auction for two to four times the tax lien.

If the City puts these houses up for auction to collect the tax
liens, the City will collect outstanding revenue and increase
real money coming into the coffers.

It is a simple matter of examining areas of Philadelphia in
demand according to the real estate market, and targeting the
collection of overdue taxes in these zones. As the City reforms
its property tax system, there is no worry that there will be a
decrease in revenue.

A City that cannot collect its property tax in an efficient,
timely fashion is doomed. No business can run by offering its
services without charging and collecting on its accounts. Neither
can the City.

I know that my taxes are high because the house in the next block
owned by a Church-run community group has not paid the taxes on
its property to the tune of $32,000.00, according to BRT records.
Why has the City failed to collect?

I see that there are drug houses where the property tax owed is
over $10,000.00 in a Center City area where houses in good
condition sell for $170,000 to $250,000. People are afraid to
certify the nuisance houses for Sheriff's Sale because it uses
$800 to do so and involves placing one's name and money against a
drug dealer. I would need to put aside $8,000.00 in my
neighborhood to get rid of the drug houses. I have a better idea.

Why won't the City simply do its job and expeditiously collect
overdue property tax liens via the Sheriff sale mechanism already
in place? If the City did this, as does the rest of the State,
then I could accept the increase in my property tax. Drug houses
would decrease. Grifters and scammers would be driven out
of houses for which no property tax is paid since Grandma died in
1995.

No other county in Pennsylvania takes seven years for an
intestate property to settle the estate. No other county lets the
property tax accrue indefinately before going to Sheriff's sale.
There should be a maximum that cannot be exceeded in certain
zones or else an expedited, automatic process to send the house
to auction occurs.

Other problems occur as a result of the long time it takes for
the City to collect overdue property taxes. The inheritance taxes
cannot be settled until the City prosecutes the matter via the
Law Dept. and the Sheriff. There are 30,000 properties that are
intestate in Philadelphia. How much do you want to bet that these
houses are drug houses? Collect the taxes!

The City's property tax collection mechanism is a deadly
combination of inefficiency, poor checks and balances, and
out-of-date assumptions of real estate values. Who does this
benefit? Campaign contributors who own real estate companies, who
need to keep a shortage of available houses to drive up property
values?

Who does it benefit by making it such a lengthy process to send
houses to Sheriff's sale for unpaid taxes? By the time the house
makes it to Sheriff's sale, it is in a terrible state of neglect,
making it impossible for the ordinary person to afford fixing up
these houses. There is a shortage of mid-income housing in the
City. This shortage drives up prices on otherwise modest housing.
Who benefits?

People, it's not that hard. Meaningful reform requires long-range
planning and the simple commonsense measures practiced by any
successful business.

Collect the taxes owed. Tax land, not improvements. Create a
reasonable maximum cutoff for overdue property tax, such as a
generous limit of $5,000.00, and auction the house when that
maximum is met. Stand up to the special interests that oppose
commonsensical fixes to the system. Philadelphia needs to
advertise the new message of how the City does business: no more
free rides.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

What a way to make people leave the city....in this time, how
could anyone with any common sense or caring raise the taxes as
they did...it just doesn't make sense...

I see sale signs all over my neighborhood and it is scary to
think people who love where they have lived have to move because
they cannot afford to pay the outrageous taxes.

Just because someone lives in what is considered an "affluent"
neighborhood, doesn't mean they have money to throw out the
window.....

How stupid and ridiculous this is.

It makes you stop and think if you want to live in this City any
longer ...

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
I moved to Philadelphia to attend graduate school in 1987. I
fell in love with the city and decided to make it my home. Last
year I sold my first and bought my second house in Queen
Village. It is already a stretch for me to meet my mortgage,
real estate tax, homeowners, and car insurance bills. If these
tax increases go through, I WILL have to sell my house and
move. I am self-employed and ALL of my business takes place in
Philadelphia. I may have to give this up as well. The city
attracted me to settle here. Please let me stay.
Thank you,
Isabel Caruso

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Please seriously consider a cap on the amount of annual increase
that can be imposed. This expense can be disasterous to those
of us on fixed income, especially in the current economic
conditions.

Thank you.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
My wife and I regretfully want to inform you that your inability
to control the BRT's real estate tax hikes this year have made
it clear that we the citizens must move out of this city. We
will be joining others on our block in Queen Village that are
making the mass exodus out of the city. We have several
investment properties in the city that we will be placing on the
market. We have made the decision that enough is enough!
We will be moving, along with our investment business to a city
that wants to promote growth and development, not hinder it with
excessive tax increases. Your 10 year tax abatement program is
discriminating, and the city services provided by our taxes is
lacking to say the least. From L&I's inefficient and non-
customer orientated approach towards helping real estate
investors; to the poor school system that makes it difficult to
find young professionals that have children who want to rent and
live in the city. We fully support a tax freeze and hope that
all of you can turn this corrupt tax system around, but we have
decided to no longer be victims waiting in anticipation of these
changes. Good luck and goodbye.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

My husband and I now pay some of the highest taxes on the 100
block of Queen Street. Consequently, I have not been hit with
the latest assessment. Unlike most people, I am not writing to
protest my assessment but rather wish to complain about the fact
that an appointed city official with a newly renovated house
with an income producing apartment which takes up one third of
the block, is paying less taxes than a 70 year old gentleman on
a fixed income. Please explain to me and my good neighbors how
Mr. Donatuci is paying only $1,322.245 in taxes and a senior
citizen whose house has not be renovated in years is paying
$1367.20. Mr. Donatuci's house is one of the largest on the
block yet his house is assessed at one of the lowest rate. Is
the power of being register of wills or a mere over site?
Whatever it is I strongly suggest you rectify it. To taxes
Senior Citizens, and people new to the neighborhood at a higher
rate than someone whose house is one of the nicest on the block
is appalling. If you are raising taxes to match the house
perhaps you should look at those in your administration.

Your rectification of this situation would be much appreciated.
I don't mind paying taxes but only is they leveled fairly, in
this case they clearly are not.

Looking forward to your response,

Nadine Lomakin and Michael McPhilmy

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
Come on by and see the "for sale" sign on my front lawn and
learn just how most philadelphians feel about sub-par city
services and never ending tax increases. My taxes have gone up
$700 in 5 years! Where does it go? In addition, I must send my
children to private school ($6000) due to the holding cell
atmosphere at Houston elem. I give up! Landsdale, here I come!
While doing the math I found that I will save on Tuition, Auto
Ins, RE taxes etc... AND improve my families quality of life and
safety.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Now here is the simplest, most practical way to straighten out the
assessment mess in a hurry. The real problem is largely one resulting
from the unconstitutional non-uniformity between residential parcels and
all other types of real estate, especially commercial parcels (not
including condominiums which may be thrown into the commercial bin
for some inexplicable reason), industrial parcels, and vacant land
parcels which are rarely reassessed (usually only upon sale - an illegal
"spot" reassessment, if that's what's really happening.

SOLUTION: Raise one mil on land values!

Just in case you missed this letter in the Daily News on Tue, Oct. 08,
2002:

The land tax & assessments

RE OP-ED "Just a distraction from the assessment mess" by Frank
Rizzo:

Although Councilman Rizzo made some excellent points in his piece,
his statement that a land-value tax has nothing to do with the quality of
the assessment is incorrect.

First, Philadelphia's biggest obstacle to adopting land-value tax has
been bad assessments.

Second, both the law and standard assessment procedure require
assessing land and buildings separately because doing so helps
assessors analyze sales of dissimilar properties to get additional data,
and leads to better assessments overall.

For example, if a gas station in one neighborhood sells for more than a
similar gas station in another neighborhood, it implies a difference in
land values. On the other hand, if an office building on one corner sells
for more than a convenience store on an adjacent corner, it implies a
difference in building values.

Finally, the state supreme court has ruled that taxpayers can appeal
their land and building breakdowns only where there is a land-value tax.
If Philadelphia were to levy just a single mil of that tax, taxpayers could
appeal land values, putting pressure on the assessors to do their job
properly.

There is, therefore, a close connection between land-value taxation and
good assessments. Each supports the other.

Dan Sullivan, Pittsburgh

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Is the BRT going to try to blame this property tax increase
fiasco on "computer error" within their assessment software?
What a fine and funny joke that would be!

I lay blame squarely on the steps of the Mayor's office. I feel
the folks employed within this office (their nice salaries paid
by me and my neighbors) lack the vision and business acumen that
Philadelphia needs to upgrade her economy and take her place in
the 21st century. The easiest thing you can do to get more money
is to raise the peoples' taxes. That is, unless they do not
oppose your effort...

City Council, please support bills numbered 020490, 0204901,
020537, 020538, and 020493. Cap this outrageous taxation once
and for all and stabilize our property tax assessment process.
Offer real relief to seniors. Bear in mine that deferment is not
real relief as this outrageous economic burdon will follow us to
our graves and to the graves of our children. It will loom, that
hated Sword of Damocles, over everyone currently owning property
in Philadelphia, and those considering real estate investment in
Philadelphia will certainly be clever enough to spot it -- and
avoid it -- as well (duh!).

You are mistaken if you think living in Center City and other
areas of Philadelphia are worth ANY cost! We all watch our
bottom line.

City Council, once you have beaten this dragon back into it's
lair, please, please, please tackle the real problem of tax
reform (both property and wage tax) with the ultimate goal of
attracting new businesses to Philadelphia. Please strive to make
Philadelphia a highly desirable place to work and live. I do my
little part. I keep my block clean, I pay my taxes, I respect
and uphold the law, I plant flowers and trees on our block, I go
to work every day and support our economy. I am encouraged by
the work that City Council has done so far and I look forward to
what will happen in the coming weeks. I suspect that the vision
for Philadelphia's future resides in City Council.

Sincerely,

Laurie Fitzpatrick
Taxpayer

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
Most senior citizens are either on fixed or limited income.
Social Security gives you a very modest increase; then, Medicare
increases its deduction; then along comes BRT and takes the
remainder of your increased SS, and then some. No wonder there
are so many vacant and abandoned houses in the city. We, as
seniors can't afford these property tax increases, thus we have
no choice but to let properties fall into disrepair because we
have to eat and stay as healthy as possible under trying
circumstances.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
There are 37 residences & 1 vacant lot on this block (700 S.
Alden St.), 19 properties sustained an increase, 19 did not.
10 properties adjacent to ours DID NOT receive an increase but
we did. My question is: What kind of equality is that?

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Having recently moved to Philadelphia, an purchasing my first
home, I am finding that the INCREDIBLE tax increases are making
the decision to renovate my home not only difficult, but due to
financial constraints, nearly impossible. The general public
does not typically need motivation to repair their property,
especially in the face of a healthy real estate market. The re-
assessments, and corresponding tax hikes, however, are in fact a
deterant.

The goal in Philadelphia, as I see it, is to draw a greater
number of young professionals into the city, where new money,
faces, and motivation will drive the city forward, especially in
terms of redevelopment. Placing huge financial burdens on home
owners, developers, and businesses seems to work directly
against these goals.

I look forward to the decision of the City Council on the tax
issues at hand. It is not only an important issue for current
home owners, but also for the future of this city.

Sincerely Yours,
Sarah N. Jacqmin

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I ask each of you to support an immediate moratorium on the 2003
real estate tax assessments while a more equitable form of
taxation can be studied. I feel there definitely has to be some
sort of cap.

I have lived in Center City my entire life -- before it became
a "hot market." I have lived in my present home for over 36
years. This is the third time my real estate taxes have
doubled. Although I work a full-time job, I am very concerned
about being able to afford the tax increase. A tax deferment
will not work. Last year my employer did not give an increase
in wages. I believe this year could be the same. There has to
be a cap ... possibly tied to the CPI.

Within a four-block radius of my home there are approximately 33
new homes being built with a 10-year tax abatement. Yet I am
struggling to pay taxes on an "unrealized gain." Please give
this careful consideration. I don't want to leave
Philadelphia.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I just purchased my first home in Queen Village, after many
years of scrimping and saving. Property prices have
skyrocketed and I am mortgaged to the hilt. It's hard enough
to find the money to pay my mortgage each month and
there's no money left for extras. Given this, I really took
umbrage at the comment made by a BRT rep. that it's the
buyers' fault that taxes are increasing---sure, I could have
offered 100,000 dollars for a home listed at
two-and-a-half-times that price, but to what end?

In any event, imagine my panic when, on the day before
settlement, I received a call from my real estate agent
informing me that my taxes were going up 250%. There's
no room in the budget for that. And, on top of that, the house
I purchased has major problems: the heating system is 45
years old. The copper pipes are failing. The chimneys are
crumbling and require rebuilding and relining. The
basement is leaking because the masonry is failing and
needs repair. And I've had to replace a 20 year old stove in
order to cook. Most of these repairs, which total over 15,000
dollars, would have had to wait even in the absence of a
huge tax increase. And imagine my dismay when my tax
assessor informed me that my home---which is one of the
smallest on the block yet assessed at the second highest
level--was listed as a "total rehab." The assessor did adjust
the level, bringing the home into line with properties on the
block that are MUCH more improved and far larger, but, still
the increase is about 70% next year, and over the past two
years, taxes have doubled (the property was reassessed
upward in both 2001 and 2002).

Frankly, I don't know what to do, other than place the
property back on the market and move out of town to
Lancaster, which is where I work. And that makes me sad
and angry.

I've lived in Philadelphia during good times and bad ones. I
arrived here from NY in 1988, during the bad blighted days,
living in areas that were unsafe, dirty, and under populated
(Grays Ferry, West Philly). Even back then, I was committed
to the city and saw a huge amount of potential here. I was
really psyched during the Rendell years, when
improvements really brought those neighborhoods, as well
as other urban outposts, out of the doldrums. Bella Vista
and Queen Village---the cusp of which I now live in---were
two of the borderlands that really improved in those years.
My block (500 Queen St) used to be filled with drug dealers
pouring in from dangerous projects around the corner on
Christian Street. Now it is cleaner, but frankly, without
committed property owners willing to keep the streets clean
(voluntarily, and without pay) and safe, these areas will turn
back into the hellish nightmare that they used to be.

Mayor Street, your proposal that homeowners be permitted
to pay tax increases in installments is ludicrous. My annual
income is my annual income. There's no money in the
budget in January, March, September, or December for this
increase. Hence, I urge you to support one of the sane
proposals being made by the members of Council: cap the
increases on taxes to reasonable levels. And remember
that we little people are earning less this year, not more.
Gone are the go-go nineties. We have negative income
growth, if any at all. And, finally, DO SOMETHING to make
this system fairer. More than half the properties on my block
are being assessed in the area of 40,000 dollars. These
properties are no worse and no smaller (and often are
larger) than those being assessed at 2.5 to 3 times that
amount.

I'll hold on a few months before listing the home I just
bought and will pray that Council and Mayor Street will do
something about this outrageous system. And, if not, it's out
of the city for me. Sad, but it will finally be time to give up on
this place.

Abby Schrader
Associate Professor
Franklin and Marshall College

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I am writing to express my anger over the property tax
assessments. Actually, I got hit last year, and I am still
reeling from the massive increase. And it did not assauge my
anger at all to learn that my three new neighbors across the
street will pay nothing in property taxes for 10 years because
they bought brand new construction! So I guess you give an
incentive to people to buy brand new houses and move downtown,
but you do not care if you lose current citizens? People are
still moving out of Philadelphia in record numbers, which the
mayor chooses to ignore and even deny.

Furthermore, increased home values, as reflected in higher
property tax assessments, only matter if I am selling my home,
which I am not right now. It is not a consolation to know that
my house is worth so much more to the city.

Also, the system is not uniform, and some houses are reassessed
more frequently because they have recently sold, while others
are not reassessed for many years. This is what happened to
me: I was told my property taxes would be a certain amount, but
after living here one year, I was hit with a 125% increase
because it had not been reassessed for a while. If my lender
had known that the property taxes would be that high, I would
not have qualified for the loan, and the city would not be
reaping the benefits of both my city wage tax (and I don't work
in the city) and my property taxes.

The rate of increase in a single year must be capped at 10%.
Even though I am not a senior citizen, I cannot come up with
huge amounts of money every year to pay property taxes. I
cannot go in to my employer and say I need more money because I
have a bigger property tax bill.

Also, the system needs to be made more uniform and transparent.
Finally, if the city needs money so bad--dare I ask what
happened to the $500 million surplus that existed just two years
ago?--then eliminate the 10 year exemption on property taxes on
new construction. This city is losing more residents that it is
attracting, so I think it can afford to eliminate that perk.
With so many other aggravations about living in this city, I am
finding few reasons to stay.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
HOW CAN YOU EXPECT PEOPLE TO LIVE & WORK IN OUR WONDERFUL CITY
WHEN YOU ARE MAKING US PAY SUCH UNFAIR /OUTRAGEOUS/UNREASONABLE
TAXES???????????????????? STOP NOW!

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