Letters: Disbanding the BRT is a mistake

THIS IS IN RESPONSE to the proposals to end the Board of Revision of Taxes as we know it.

I am amazed by the proposed changes.

Historically, the board was formed and controlled by the Common Pleas Court judges to take politics out of the real estate taxation.

It would be a lot easier for the mayor or this staff to tax the areas of the city that do not vote the way they want them to, or lower taxes for the neighborhoods that do vote the way they want them to.

Giving control of this type of function to the mayor's office would bring Philadelphia back to the 1940s, when the Republicans controlled the city, and people would have to pay political donations even to have their trash collected.

Secondly, they want to put real estate "professionals" in charge of the new department. I would have thought that we would have learned from the mistakes made on Wall Street. This would be like the old saying of letting the foxes guard the hen house.

I hope the City Council and the mayor can rethink their strategy before burying homeowners with higher taxes that people cannot afford to pay.

If not, the voters would remind them soon thereafter.

David Krain, Philadelphia