Letters: Wash down soda tax with abatement reform

ISSUE | TAXES

Alter abatement tax

Cheers to architecture columnist Inga Saffron for casting a light on what has become a tax boondoggle - the 10-year real estate tax abatement. ("With soda tax done, let's retool abatement," June 17). Philadelphia has one of the most liberal, untargeted abatements in the nation.

As Saffron points out, historic and vintage buildings that define neighborhoods are destroyed to obtain the abatement, and the public school system is deprived of tens of millions of dollars in critical funding.

In a city of largely middle-class and lower-income residents, wealthy homeowners can avoid paying a quarter of a million dollars or more in real estate taxes over 10 years. This subsidy for the well-to-do has no place in Center City and other areas with a host of other major attractions for well-to-do buyers.

|Jonathan M. Stein, Philadelphia, jonathanstein5@gmail.com

Target tax elsewhere

My thanks to City Council for passing the soda tax in support of schools and parks. Now let's get behind revising the property-tax abatement program as Inga Saffron proposes.

My husband and I (both retired) and our three adult children (with their families) have all moved from the suburbs to West Philadelphia to enjoy the neighborhood of Victorian homes, University City, and proximity to downtown. But the two drawbacks are the deplorable public schools and the destruction of the historic neighborhood.

With targeted abatements, the historic neighborhoods can be saved and much-needed revenue will improve the schools. Then our children won't retreat to the suburbs. Like the soda tax, it will provide a win-win solution.

|Jennifer Loustau, Philadelphia, jenloustau9323@gmail.com

Soda tax too high

Let's look at the taxes the city has instituted to help the schools: 2 percentage points added to the sales tax, a 10 percent alcoholic-drink tax, and a $2-a-pack cigarette tax. With all this money, I would think the schools would be doing just fine. But now the city has adopted a 1.5-cent-per-ounce sweetened-drink tax ("New soda tax's fizzy formula," Thursday).

Forget that the grab for money never seems to end and that the next tax is just around the corner. My main objection is one of simple math. I shop for my Diet Coke on sale. I have purchased a 12-pack for $3. That is 25 cents a can. The new tax on that can will be 18 cents. That is a tax rate of 72 percent. Imagine paying that tax rate on everything.

I understand that the city needs money, but enacting a confiscatory tax is not the way.

|Stewart Silverman, Philadelphia