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Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
Have any of you really thought of what you are doing to the long-
time residence of this city. People who have bought homes,
worked for years, raised their families and finally were able to
retire with what they thought was enough money to see them
through are now on the verge of losing their homes. Real estate
prices have skyrocketed all over the city but the people who pay
big prices should be taxed not the people who have lived in
their homes, raised their familes and are now on fixed incomes.
Please, levy your increases on the new buyers not on the long-
time residents of our neighborhoods.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

WE AS A PEOPLE ARE ALL UNABLE TO LIVE WITH THIS VERY BAD ECONOMY
OF WHICH WE HAVE SHRUGGLED VERY TO KEEP OUR HOMES AND FAMILIES
EATING ,HOWEVER SINCE THE CITY GOVERMENT SEEM TO BE OUT OF TOUCH
WITH OUR DAILY SHRUGGLE AND AND CANNOT EMPATHIZE WITH PLIGHT,
AND YOU CONTINUE TO RAISE OUR TAXES AND YOU DON'T SEE THE
MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO'S HOMES THE CITY KEEP TAKING DUE TO NO
FAULT OF THE PEOPLE, THEN YOU LEAVE US NO CHOICE ,BUT TO FIRE
EVERYONE IN CITY HALL ,BECAUSE THIS IS A DEMACRACY AND WE VOTED
YOU ALL IN THEREFORE WE CAN FIRE EVERYONE.BECAUSE YOUR GREED HAS
MADE YOU LOSE TOUCH WITH THE CHANGING TIMES THAT ARE UPON US
ALL, SO NOW SEE IF YOU CAN PAY YOUR TAXES AND OTHER BILLS ON
UNEMPLOYMENT. WE WILL RALLEY THE MILLIONS WHO HAVE LOST THEIR
HOMES AND PUT AN END TO THIS HIGH TAX MADNESS BY VOTES.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I pay $875.00 per year in taxes on a tiny plot in a marginal
neighborhood in West Philly. Toll brothers pays 30K per year
for The lands and buildings at the old Naval Home on Greys
Ferry. It seems interesting that I pay allmost 1/30th as much
as Toll brothers vor a property which has much less potential
and value than the Naval Home. How does BRT justify this?

My land, the dirt under my house is assessed at $3200. The
land, the same dirt under the house nextdoor is assessed at
$789. My property is assessed annually, the property nextdoor
has not be reassessed in seven years. BRT explains my
increasing assessments as part of living in a "hot"
neighborhood. Does the house nextdoor live in a different
neighbor hood?

Every dollar that I spend rneovating my property increases the
value of the vacant property next door, yet if I were to sell my
house I would get less than top dollar as the property is vacant
and looks like hell. Where is L&I or City Council to motivate
the slumlord to rehab or sell? Where is the BRT when houses on
my street have been converted to apartments but they are listed
and taxed as single family homes by the BRT?

Is it that our elected and apponted officials don't care or that
things are so completely out of control and their incompetence
so sompletely ingrained that the system is just running on old
momentum? Whatevr the answer the system has to change and it
has to change soon. Middle clas taxpapers are justifiably
deserting our city. Who will be left to pay for all the free
lunches, brekfasts, daycare, rents and utility bills that are
dispensed without regard to budget constraints?

This insane asylum needs a new warden.

Thanks for your time.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
I went through the property tax appeals process in January 2003
and my property was reassessed at a lower amount. The BRT sent a
letter stating the property reassessment value. I calculated the
new tax to be half of the original 61% increase for 2003.
My dilemma is that I cannot get a statement from the Tax Revenue
Bureau with the lowered property tax expressed in dollars. The
original tax bill at a 61% increase for 2003 was already paid to
the city by my mortgage company in January.
Because this money comes from my escrow account, I want the new,
lowered amount to be used to calculate my escrow holdings for
the next year. Otherwise the escrow will be based on the 61% tax
rate increase and I will be paying an excessive and unnecessary
amount of money.
My mortgage company requires a dollar figure to calculate the
new tax bill, not a property reassessment figure. The
Philadelphia Tax Revenue Bureau is unwilling to produce a
statement after numerous requests.
I would like a new tax bill produced to reflect the lowered tax.
Please forward my request to the appropriate persons that I
might receive a correct property tax bill to provide to my
mortgage company so that they will accurately calculate my
escrow account.
Thank you for your attention to this concern.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I have lived in Philaelphia for 5 years now. I moved here
because of location and affordability. Over the past year and a
half I have been looking to buy for the first time. I believe
there is a lot of possibilty in Philadelphia. It is sort of
dishearting to see the slow slow improvements to the city and
the fact we do not have more progressive and creative elected
officials. I wish our elected officials would travel to other
cities and see the more progessive ideas that make a city great.
When I go away and visit some cities like Vancouver, Canada and
Miami,USA and come back I think, why is Philadelphia such a
sucky city and why are parts of it worse then a third world
county? I would love a mayor to address the city and speak
honestly and say " This city is really not that great, but it
can be one of the best places to live." We need much more vision
in this city. If we were to keep the city more affordable we
could keep people here and attract many more like all of the
students that come here to study. If we could elimiate all of
the red tape and fee rich city government regulations, we could
revitalize all of the god forsaken areas of the city that are
festering blighted crime ares that are subhuman to live in. When
the city taxes so highly, it makes is less affordable to more
modest income levels to buy and many or the properties are
bought by managment groups and thus turn the city into a society
of renters. This only continues the rental cycle. If we have a
higher home ownership we would have people that care more about
where they live and a more stable city.
Another thing the city could do is make address available of
those who own vacant property. I have searched alot of the city
and looked up hundreds of vacant properties in order to buy
them. On the accesable records from the city, often it only has
the owners name. This makes it very hard or impossible to find
them to see if they are intereted in selling. The city has to
have an address for them to send them a tax bill.
Also with the new idea to have vacant property fixed with new
windows and doors to make the areas cleaner,I think it is a
start in the right direction but not the best idea. It does make
property owners more likely to think about what they should do
with vacant property. One the other hand if someone was
searching for vacant property, it will become impossible to see
by walking by if infact it is empty. I think a better idea that
will help everyone including the city is a base value tax. It
would be a tax that says the start of the tax has to be at least
so much. For example on the same block if there were two houses,
one abandoned shell and one lived in and the current taxes on
the lived in one is $400 and the current taxes on the shell is
$87, the new taxes would be $400 for the livedin house and a
base tax on that block of $300 for all property. Thus making the
shell now taxed at $300 and making it much more likley to get
something done with it, either selling it or fixing it up and
making it a rental income producing to pay for the new tax.It
would not be proprortionate to the actual condition. It would
tax vacant and abandoned property much higher rate then
currently and owners would have to decide if they want to
revitalize their property or sell it. They could be exempt from
tax rises if they put it up for sale at the city market value
and as long as it was advertised their tax rate would stay the
same. With this tax, vacant slum property owners would be forced
to do something or else pay for their disregard for fellow
neighbors and citizens of the city. It would also prevent all of
these greedy owners to stop sitting on property waiting for the
values to rise and then sell. As long as the city taxes these
properties less then the yearly property value increse, people
will hold onto these empty eyesores as "investments".
Another thing the city could do is sell the empty lots of land
that it owns to eligible people to build on at a low cost.
Currently the city will sell it to the property owner next to it
for $1 but to others at market price. This only makes the rich
richer and people interested in making the city better out of
luck. Many of these lots are in poorer areas and the property
owners next to such lots cannot take care of their own property
well.
The one thing the city sort of has going for itself is the art
comunity. Most if not all of the great citys have a foundation
in the arts.(i.e. Paris,NY.) It has added to many areas of
Philadephia like First Fridays in Old City and all of the
theaters on Broad Street. Being affordable is important to keep
this going and the taxation in the city makes it harder to get
out of the rental cycle and own. In my search for owning, I have
to look at the taxes. I cannot be paying $100 a month for taxes
in addition to my morgage considering that the taxes account for
about 1/4 to 1/5 of my monthly cost of owning a house.
As mentioned earlier, I think Philadelphia can be a great
place, but we need to start with a good foundation and that
means not taxing the citizens out of the city.
I hope this letter reaches somone that cares about
Philadelphia.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

This year's property tax increases are too inconsistent. We can
raise tax revenues more sensibly than this. I support the
DiCicco-Nutter council bills 490 and 491.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

You must STOP SQUEEZING THE MIDDLE CLASS. WE SUPPORT THE DICCO-
NUTTER COUNSEL BILLS 490$491.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I want to thank all of you for your initial support of the bills
that relate to curtailing the extraordinary tax increases in
Philadelphia. I hope you continue to stregthen your efforts in
this endeavor. Otherwise, you will lose some of the people that
currently contribute to the Philadelphia community and the tax
base as it now exists. Tax increases are understood, but this
is too much at once. If you push too hard for a big increase,
people will leave Philadelphia, and this will leave Philadelphia
worse off.

I have lived in Philadelphia since 1975. I have worked in New
Jersey since 1996, and my employer has offered to pay my
settlement cost and 25% of the cost of my new house if i move to
New Jersey. I have refused thus far as I love Philadelphia.
But the tax increases that are proposed would finally make me
change my mind and leave Philadelphia. I would take the profit
from the sale of my home in Philadelphia, and New Jersey would
then gain by having me as a new tax payer in their state.

Keep up the good work and fight for us. Philadelphia will gain
in the long run. We need to look toward the future of
Philadelphia, and not be short sighted by quick money hungry
hits that will hurt us down the road.

Thank you.

Steve Ciceron

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Please, act to stop these suicidal property tax increases if
you wish to keep your neighbors in Philadelphia!

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
Thank you, Council Pres. Anna Verna, David Cohen, Angel Ortiz, Jim
Kenney, Frank DiCicco, Marion Tasco, Michael Nutter and W. Wilson
Goode, Jr. for supporting City Council Bill #020309 to cut the
City wage tax for the lowest paid workers from 4.54% to l.5% over
six years.
I urge Donna Miller, Jannie Blackwell, Blondell Reynolds Brown,
Richard Mariano, Frank Rizzo, Darrell Clarke, Joan Krajewski,
Thacher Longstreth and Brian O'Neill to vote for this Bill which
would give all low-income workers a 3% wage increase. Bill 309
phases in the tax reduction over six years to make it very easy
for the City administration to adjust to the small amount of lost
revenue, especially if the Council puts the Controller's Tax
Reform Plan with the Land Tax into effect.
Until we get a decent minimum living wage (like $10 an hour) that
takes these folks up from poverty level so they can support
families, we (you and I) who are more fortunate should not only
help them for good compassionate caring moral reasons, but the
whole city's economy and quality of life will gain as well.
Thank you.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:


I wrote to you last Spring complaining that my property taxes
have shot the past two years (57% on 2001, 12% in 2002), and in
2003 I was socked again with a 31% property tax increase.

Okay. I have filed an appeal and will fight this reassesment
with the help of Councilman DiChicco.

I just want you to know that I am an artist (I don't make a lot
of money but I am a hard worker -- I make sacrifices to make my
art in Philadelphia) who bought an inexpensive home on Rodman
Street 10 years ago when it was a crumbling, cheap, crime
plagued, student slum. These past years I have struggled, as
have my neighbors, to improve our block. Today we have a very
nice street of people who know each other -- a real
neighborhood. I feel the envying eyes of less "affluent"
Philadelphia neighborhoods staring at us, licking their chops.
They see all the good but they don't see the work we did to get
it. And they certainly weren't looking as we 'pulled ourselves
up by our bootstraps.' In other words, the improvement we enjoy
today was due to our hard work. No one gave it to us. It could
have just as well gone the other way.

Today, homes on my block are selling for a lot of money.
Personally, I think people are paying too much and they are
buying in at the peak of the market. A similiar trend occured
(on our block and all over Center City) in the late 80's before
the last economic recession hit. The result was that people went
into foreclosures and lost their homes. I knew people who
subsequently bought some of those properties as a hugely
discounted price, the real value of the home, not some inflated,
crazy real estate market value of the home. I thought it was
rediculous and my question is, is it fair to base my property
tax on such a unstable thing as the real estate value of my
house?

I fear strongly that this crazy property tax raise, without the
attendant (and promised) decrease in the city wage tax, will
ruin Philadelphia in the long term. Who has the money to pay
these taxes? If we're paying heavy wage and property taxes, and
hefty mortgages, how can we afford to improve and maintain our
neighborhoods? How can we afford to patronize businesses and
entertainment venues in Center City? Afford nice meals out? Pay
our rising electric, gas, and other bills? I can see this tax
situation tipping off a domino effect that will damage
Philadelphia's economic future, and we will witness the
evaporation of all the gains that have been made in the past 10
years. Not that these things were so substantive in the first
place, which is why a heavy property tax increase, especially at
this time, is a very bad idea.

Ask yourself, how will Philadelphia fit into the 21st Century?
If you don't ask it, then I will start asking myself, "Where can
I go where they have a good plan for the future."

I can't abide by this level of uncertainty, especially after
I've worked so hard and invested so much in my home. It's a
panicky, "get out while you can, before you lose too much"
feeling. Also, I feel powerless that the city can just raise my
property tax whenever it needs money, and can raise it as much
as it deems necessary. I'm being taxed out of my life and
home!!! It's like the old 'taxation without representation'
thing, but the 'without representation' part is a wall of
numbers and strings of 'legalease' that I do not understand,
that puport to tell me that my tax increase in justified. Do you
think I have the money to hire a lawyer to wade through that
muck for me? In short, if I do not get property and city wage
tax relief, I will sell my house and move out of Philadelphia.

I ask myself "what does Philadelphia do for me?" Several years
ago, as an artist it provided me opportunites not available in
rural areas. It also provided me with a fairly good wage and
affordable housing. As a gay person it offered a community where
I felt safe to be myself. Philly of the 90's was cheap, kind of
funky and cool, and it had a brighter future (Philly is not New
York City, and we like that). Today, as an older and more
established person, the original reasons why I settled here have
become less necessary, and quite frankly, the level at which
they are offered are somewhat 'introductory' or 'entry level'.
Yeah, Center City is looking good, but it is also becoming
increasingly expensive and it begs the question, how is this
being paid for and is there an economic collapse around the
corner? I fear that this tax increase is a symptom of a far
greater malaise, not a solution to any problem. So these days,
faced with a huge real estate tax, I ask myself does the growing
sense of uncertainty and helplessness outweigh that which makes
it worth living in Philadelphia?

The answer is, I'm afraid, yes.

From what I can gather, bill 020490 will be looked at this
Wednesday. If this bill can help me and others like me, please
support it.

Sincerely,

Laurie Fitzpatrick

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Why do the hardworking residents of Philadelphia have to be
constantly penalized for working and maintaining a decent home
in the city of Philadelphia?

Currently, the only thing I can financially and logically
justify to stay in the city is my real estate value. I have
already been taxed astronomically for years with city wage tax.
I have remarkably been able to ignore the exorbitant amount of
money that comes out of my paycheck each while friends and
coworkers residing and working in the suburbs snicker at me.
Now, the only thing that keeps me in the city, the value of my
home, is going to taxed exorbitantly as well. Are you trying
to drive every decent, hardworking person with an ounce of
common sense in their heads out of the city? Well if that is
your goal you will surely succeed with this unjust and
unacceptable real estate tax increase. The residents of this
city will surely not allow it!!

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I pay far too much in property taxes. The system is so crazy -
I pay 3x as much per square foot as my neighbors, it's
ridiculous. For all the money I give this city you'd think I'd
at least have a safe, unbroken sidewalk, but now that would be
too much to ask of a city that spends my money on jobs for their
wives and houses for themselves. Stop the madness and stop
raping us.
Rachel Iannotti

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:
The Mayor's Neighborhood Transformation (Destruction) Initiative,
like the Free Enterprise Zones, is doomed to go no further than to
produce brownfields. These programs are pork barrels for
bureaucrats, wiping out the abandoned properties at taxpayers'
expense by the highest bidder, without going for the root cause of
why the property was abandoned in the first place. It didn't need
an advertising campaign all these years for buildings to be
neglected and for businesses and residents to leave Philadelphia
because of our high nuisance taxes.
If City Council passes the Controller's Office Tax Reform Plan
with its land value site tax, the word will get around without any
taxpayer-paid ads (just like wild birds and other animals, humans
will go for the feed and find their way back to the city).
The Controller's Office did its job for 14 months studying all
city taxes and came up with its excellent tax reform plan.
Councilman Nutter now needs to do his job and read the well-
thought-out plan. If he mislaid his copy I'm sure one can be
provided.
City Council and the Mayor will then be heroes (and be re-elected)
for turning this city around. But they must act NOW. The Center
for the Study of Economics can show them how to accomplish this
easily (as they have in cities all over the country, including in
Pennsylvania). For Real Property Tax Research and Implementation,
they can be contacted at 215-988-9998.
Thanks for looking for real change for our beautiful city.
Sincerely,

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

Your vote to begin serious tax reform in Philadelphia was a
courageous one -- I hope it is the first of many to come.

God bless you. God bless Philadelphia. God bless America.

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Thank you City Council for supporting Bill 92! And a special
thank you to Councilman Cohen for making a special effort to
be present today. You have not only sent an important message,
you have pushed the city forward.

But don't stop there -- we have much more work to do to make
Philadelphia competitive and tear down our taxes so we can build
up our neighborhoods.

Dear City Council:

Thank you for unanimously pushing through Bill 92 today.

This is a small but important step forward in sustaining and
growing our city's population and job base.

I sincerely hope that Council, Mayor Street, and our
representatives in Harrisburg and Washington continue to work
(preferably together) to reduce the financial disincentives
related to living and working in Philadelphia while finding ways
to fund improvements in our schools and other public services.

Thank you for taking this first step today with a unanimous
voice.

Domenic Vitiello

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I strongly support continuing, and in fact accelerating, the
wage tax reductions begun during Mayor Rendell's administration.
I see no reason why the city government cannot be run more
efficiently and in a more fiscally conservative way.

At the same time, I believe cuts in the wage tax will help
entice new businesses as well as branch offices of major
corporations to seriously consider locating here.

I urge all of City Council along with Mayor Street to support
this legislation.

Sincerely,
Maryanne Parlato
4329 Larchwood Ave.
Phila., PA 19104
Maryanne.Parlato@ibx.com

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

I strongly support continuing, and in fact accelerating, the
wage tax reductions begun during Mayor Rendell's administration.
I see no reason why the city government cannot be run more
efficiently and in a more fiscally conservative way.

At the same time, I believe cuts in the wage tax will help
entice new businesses as well as branch offices of major
corporations to seriously consider locating here.

I urge all of City Council along with Mayor Street to support
this legislation.

Sncerely,
Jim Lilly

Dear City Council & Mayor Street:

Please consider the recent proposal for a wage tax decrease.
Philadelphia desperately needs more businesses in the city to
increase its tax base. Many companies and employees see the
depression era wage tax as oppressive and excessive. We need
stop the flow of Philadelphia jobs to the suburbs.

Please vote to reduce the wage tax!!

Thanks,
Alex Brown

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