Philly collects record $24M in monthly sales taxes
Thanks to a strong Christmas shopping season
Philly collects record $24M in monthly sales taxes
Joseph N. DiStefano
Philadelphia collected $23.9 million from the city's surcharge on state sales taxes last month, "the highest one-month sales tax collection ever recorded by the City," according to elected city controller Alan Butkovitz.
February’s total, which includes Christmas sales tax collections recorded late due to the delay in sending the city's piggybacked tax payments from Philadelphia to Harrisburg and back, rose $1.14 million from the year before.
The city sales tax hit the current 8% (2% for the city, 6% for the state) in 2010 after state and city legislators gave Mayor Nutter the increase to fill the gap from falling property taxes and rising retiree pension fund payments.
The previous record month was August 2010, when sales tax collections topped $23.4 million.
Comments (16)
And yet they are going to raise taxes once again on the working people of the city. Oh wait! Its not a tax, its a reassessment. :\— psyrus- And yet the City wants more.... Lots of palm to grease in Philly.— Bruddah
- the story of the economic recovery is that the gains are not filtering down to the middle class. the 1% is reaping the recovery. getting more than they ever had before. while the rest of us continue to struggle. I blame Obama for not taking wall street to task.— Ryan
- Why not raise it another penny? After all, who could't afford a penny more for the efficient city services we receive? And while they're at it, double the tax by the drink. The Center City bars were packed this weekend and will be this upcoming weekend as well.— Wilhelm Von Humboldt
- Raise the taxes on the ones who pay them. Why bother punishing those who don't?— Flyers2001
- haha you know what this means? throw more wasted money at the schools!!! yay!!!— raynesrock
- Okay, now the mayor won't have to raise property taxes. Right? HAHA— The_Unknown-Poster
- I hate this City, I really do.— discobiscuit
- The extra 1% was pretty terrible - now the extra 1%. There is no limit to how much our City's government will take, waste and spend. They collect and apply taxes selectively - all the while refusing to bring employee benefits into alignment. Shop in Delaware for all taxable items over $500 - TV's, Computers, etc. and while you're there, go to Target and pick up a month's worth of pet food and laundry detergents - to Home Depot for household needs - make a day out of it - Do it about once a month - in 6 months, you'll have saved enough in sales tax for a weekend getaway. Plus the peace of mind that your hard-earned money stayed in your pocket rather than going for some city employee's annual sick days and double dip pensions.— PhillyDaniel
Thank God tax revenue increased again! Now there'll be no need to reduce the ridiculous city pensions we pay out or the assumptions behind them.— The Monk- City council gets to add staff! And take vacations with staff! And ...— mmds
- More people should shop outside the City where the sales tax is 6% and let nutter put the sales tax back to the same rate.— anti-tax
The city just made a record amount of revenue and everyone's angry lol. I think that we should be very concerned about how OUR MONEY is being spent but you can't knock a revenue maker. This is a good thing. People are spending money in Philly and they're damn sure not just Philadelphians. We must hold our officials accountable and ensure that they have our best interests in mind but we need money point blank period. I'd rather us get our money from sales tax, liquor tax and tolls than an even higher property tax, wage tax, etc... Just my thoughts. Comments anyone?- start putting that money into the workers pension instead of pocketing it— DoomsdayCritic
- It's TEMPORARY. It will return to 1% in 2 yrs (2014). Then again, I'm expecting shenanigans as false reasons why the administration wants to keep it at 8%. Hold them to their promise of 5yrs people!
Thank goodness, the DE state line is only 15mins away.— PhilMar
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Joseph N. DiStefano blogs about the latest news in the Philadelphia business community and elsewhere. Contact him at 215-854-5194.
Reach Joseph N. at JoeD@phillynews.com.
Joseph N. DiStefano
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