Letters to the Editor | July 17, 2026

I am 80 years old and was living happily on a pension with my wife of almost 50 years. Then I sold my house in Center City in 2020 and bought a house on the edge of the city where we could more easily isolate (it was the height of the pandemic), and where I could unpack my large library (both of us write books and need our library, but writing is not a significant source of income). So I carefully planned what we could afford, assuming that not only would our taxes rise with inflation, but that my pension would, too. In 2024, the city literally doubled our real estate taxes in one year. I had to go back to work full time (at half the salary I commanded 20 years ago), but I count myself lucky to have found work at my age. Who knows how long I’ll be able to keep it up? There is no way I will ever be able to afford to retire, and when I die, my wife will lose half the pension and won’t be able to keep her house.

With the recent property assessments, is anyone thinking about the bind our elected officials have left seniors? I spent the money to get a professional and objective appraisal, and attempted to appeal this breathtaking tax increase of 100% in one year. No one from the city ever came to look at the house; I suppose they just relied on Zillow.

Many seniors, who, like me, worked for half a century paying taxes, paying into a retirement plan, and who still vote, must be feeling as I do that nobody cares about seniors. I am a lifelong Democrat, but I see that a Republican in the state House is the only one to propose a bill in either the legislature or City Council to exempt seniors from real estate taxes. Does anyone want to see their parents or grandparents — or one day themselves — in this position? Seniors have earned a retirement, not an eviction.

Jonathan Fineberg, Philadelphia

All major religions emphasize our responsibility to those in need. “... wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides” (Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel). The Quran commands giving out of love to “the poor, needy travelers” (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:177). Jesus is clear about our duty to care for the vulnerable: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12). Yet when Pope Leo XIV likewise quotes from traditional Catholic Social Teaching and reminds us of our moral obligation to the unprotected, he is accused, even by so-called Catholics, of being a Marxist/communist. Congratulations to Pope Leo XIV, who has now joined such respected figures as Nelson Mandela, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Albert Einstein — each of whom was wrongly accused by conservatives of being a communist.

Tom Sexton, Philadelphia, tom_sexton@hotmail.com

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