Poll: City residents feel overtaxed, still willing to pay more
A Pew Charitable Trusts poll released this morning found that city residents are concerned about how much they pay in local taxes but would pay more in return for better city services. Forty-nine percent of those polled said they favor higher taxes for more services while 42 percent wanted to reduce taxes and have fewer services.
Poll: City residents feel overtaxed, still willing to pay more
Chris Brennan
A Pew Charitable Trusts poll released this morning found that city residents are concerned about how much they pay in local taxes but would pay more in return for better city services. Forty-nine percent of those polled said they favor higher taxes for more services while 42 percent wanted to reduce taxes and have fewer services.
When asked about the city's tax burden, 40 percent called it very serious, 30 percent called it somewhat serious and 26 percent called it not very serious.
A majority, 56 percent, favor the idea of commercial advertising at City Hall and other municipal properties to raise money while 34 percent oppose that. The residents polled were split on the idea of taxing sugary drinks like soda to raise money -- 32 percent favor the idea strongly, 14 percent favor it but not strongly, 16 percent oppose it but not strongly and 33 percent strongly oppose it.
New City Council President Darrell Clarke, who proposed the commercial advertising effort, immediately hailed the poll results in a news release.
"I have long been of the view that the City of Philadelphia cannot tax its way out of a fiscal crisis," Clarke's release said. "The City’s leaders must look for new and inventive ways to generate revenues and avoid leaning too heavily on hard-working citizens."
You can read the complete poll, done by Pew's Philadelphia Research Initiative, here.
Follow Chris on Twitter
David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
Follow Dave on Twitter.
Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
Follow Jan on Twitter
Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
Follow Sean on Twitter
