Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce bigwigs made their rounds to the offices of City Council members today lobbying against a plan to raise money for schools through an increase in a business tax known as the use and occupancy tax.
Rob Wonderling, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce said the Chamber supports more school funding, but argues increasing the business tax would adversely affect small businesses. But, that plan appears to be dead.
"We don't think it's good public policy," Wonderling said, standing alongside the Chamber's Joe Mahoney, executive vice president and Denise Early, director of public policy. "There's this misinformation that it would be borne by big business owners."
Last week Council gave preliminary approval to a plan that would bring in $40 million extra for the school district through Mayor Nutter's proposal to shift to a property-tax system based on market values, known as the Actual Value Initiative (AVI) and another $45 million by hiking the use and occupancy tax, which taxes the square footage of the business portion of a property.
The latter is a move Wonderling said could drive small businesses elsewhere.