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Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Council Questions End To Wage Tax Break For Poor

Three City Council members this morning questioned Mayor Nutter's plan to kill the Low Income Tax Credit, an idea that he previously supported but that has never been implemented.

Councilmen Curtis Jones, Bill Greenlee and W. Wilson Goode Jr., speaking during Council's first budget hearing on Nutter's five-year plan, clearly have concerns about giving up on a reduction in city wage taxes for the working poor.

"You're going to have to convince me that there's a way we can't still do that," Greenlee told Nutter staffers. "I hope we don't get off in a discussion where it's either business tax cuts or that."

Greenlee's former boss, the late Councilman David Cohen, championed the tax credit, getting it passed in 2004 and overcoming a veto by then-Mayor Street.  Street tried again in 2006 to kill the tax credit, just a few months after Cohen died, but settled on a compromise with Council to delay its start from July 2010 to July 2013. Nutter, who had supported the tax credit, opposed the delay then.

Nutter's staff now says the working poor will benefit from city wage tax cuts for all and that reductions in business taxes will create more jobs.

Posted by Chris Brennan @ 11:45 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
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About Chris Brennan and Catherine Lucey
PhillyClout
Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.

Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002. Since then she has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. For the past two years, she covered the 2007 mayoral election. Now that the battle is over, she has moved down to the City Hall bureau where she will report on the Nutter administration.

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Catherine Lucey
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