Heard in the Hall

House approves city sales tax hike

Philadelphia City Hall and political coverage from the Philadelphia Inquirer City Hall bureau.

34 comments

House approves city sales tax hike

POSTED: Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 2:53 PM

Marcia Gelbart

We can't see Mayor Nutter right now since he is in Harrisburg. But one would assume he is feeling at least a small degree of relief since the Pennsylvania House just approved a penny-per-dollar increase of the city's sales tax, raising it from 7 percent to 8 percent.

The vote on House Bill 1828 was 112-85. (Here's the roll call vote.)

The legislation will also allow the city to defer payments for two years into the pension fund.

Now onto the next challenge - the state Senate, where leaders have said they won't consider acting on the Philadelphia legislation until a state budget is in place. Here's the story from today's Inquirer.

Earlier today, Senate Majority Leader Domenic Pileggi gave little indication that he was willing to budge from his stance of hashing out a state budget first.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

At a news conference in Harrisburg, he appeared to question the urgency of the Philadelphia legislation, noting that the Senate had introduced a bill less than a week ago, and that - until the past hour - no House legislation had been voted on.

Also, Pileggi said: "The other 66 counties are asking for relief in their pension situations and some are looking for a local [sales] tax option in a similar way to the city of Philadelphia,” Pileggi said. “I don’t know why we would pick Philadelphia out as a special case, other than the fact that the governor is from Philadelphia and has a special interest in Philadelphia’s welfare.”

34 comments

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Comments (34)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:41 PM, 08/05/2009

The State Senate should stop any increase in Philadelphia’s taxes. The city needs to temporarily cut spending. There is room. Collect taxes and bail money that is owed. Repeal the Slavery Era Disclosure Ordinance, the Tour Guide Licensing Law and the 21st Century Minimum Wage Law, both of which simply increase the city’s costs without benefit. Cut programs that benefit various special interests. The best part is that these spending cuts would only be temporary. What would be permanent would be the loss of jobs, businesses and taxpayers if we raise taxes. A sales tax increase would also hurt Pennsylvania, which will lose 6% for sales that are not made or made in New Jersey, Delaware or on the internet.

— J. Matthew Wolfe

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:54 PM, 08/05/2009

3000 GOOD city workers will be missed. You don't honestly think he will get rid of the bums and keep the workers, do you?

— Trident252

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:11 PM, 08/05/2009

the naivete of these posts is shocking - it's not about just the firing of 3000 workers, which is bad enough. it's that city services would shut down - city planning, commerce, faimount park, recreation etc. as well as reductions in fire and police. trash pick up every two weeks rather than every week. no after school programs, no libraries. come on - one measly cent of sales tax is no big deal for the consumer - but not passing it is dire for this city and its citizens.

— philliestew

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:19 PM, 08/05/2009

Ain't buyin nottin in Nutter land no mo...

— phillyflava

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:19 PM, 08/05/2009

Raising taxes on the cumulatively highest taxed city in the nation is not the answer. Start collecting what is due the city in delinquent taxes and bail money. Eliminate redundancy with federal programs. Cut the fat...is the Health czar still around?

— rhawnhurst

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:34 PM, 08/05/2009

philliestew you are 100% correct. Glad to see someone out there has a brain.

— UncleEddie

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:38 PM, 08/05/2009

I think the city might be better off if it actually just dedicated this penny to public safety. While the police could obviously be more efficient, who wants this money to go to Latrice Bryant's raise, or the DROP program? (my favorite new set of general fund negative exemplars). If Nutter wants to use the police lay- off rhetoric, perhaps he should put our money where his mouth is. "Cents for Safety".

— bobcitydoc