(1) The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pursuant to powers granted by Section 2(b)(ii) of Article VIII of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which provides for the establishing as a class or classes of taxation the property or privileges of persons who because of poverty and age are determined to be in need of special tax provisions, has enacted the Act of July 2, 1995, which act, subject to certain limitations, authorizes cities of the first class of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to provide, by ordinance, for special tax provisions for city and school district real estate taxes.
(2) The Council of the City of Philadelphia, having determined that there are persons within this City whose incomes are such that imposition of the full amount of real estate taxes on such persons deprives them and their dependents of the bare necessities of life and having further determined that poverty is a relative concept inextricably joined with actual income, the number of people dependent upon such income and the likelihood of a taxpayer being able by reason of age to increase that income, deems it to be a matter of public policy to provide special tax provisions to relieve the economic burden of that class of persons hereinafter designated.