Over the years, I’ve asked lots of companies how much money they make.

The publicly held ones have to tell you, but not the private firms. Most would rather not because they don’t want their competition to know.

A bill introduced into City Council June 12 would require all businesses that pay the business privilege tax to disclose all sorts of information, including their net income and taxes paid.

While I certainly want to know more about Philadelphia companies, this bill is a bad idea.

Backers say that they want to expose those who aren’t paying their fair share in taxes. Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez said 872 businesses reported annual receipts over $10 million in 2006.

About 300 paid an average annual tax bill of more than $470,000. The rest paid only $9,020 on average.

To which I say, if you flog those 573 businesses in public, they’ll probably hightail it out to Bensalem, Cheltenham, Upper Darby or beyond, taking their jobs and taxable income with them.

Still, Philadelphia isn’t alone in left field on this. There is a spirited debate at the federal and state levels over requiring more disclosure of corporate tax return information. Tax reform advocates think it would help lawmakers and the public understand how existing laws are working and perhaps lead to better tax policy.

Since early 2007, the Washington, D.C.-based Center of Budget and Policy Priorities has urged states to enact laws to do just that.

Five states require corporations to publicly disclose their state tax liabilities and other information: Arkansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin. But the extent of the reporting varies.

For example, Wisconsin allows anyone to obtain records showing net-income tax for any corporation that does business in the state.

Since 1993, Massachusetts has required every corporation, bank and insurer to report on profits, taxes paid and tax credits received. But the state doesn’t release of the name or address of any company tied to that information.

Which brings me back to Philadelphia.

I don’t like the “let’s make a deal” game that persists between select companies and the city. Promises are made in return for subsidies, and often the employers don’t deliver the job creation. Meanwhile, the overall tax and regulatory environment remains thorny for businesses who don’t have a horse to trade.

It’s got to frustrate Council when it’s asked to rubber-stamp the latest sure thing in the name of economic growth without knowing how the deal will affect the tax burden on everyone else.

But the answer is not to pass a bill that forces all enterprises paying the business privilege tax to divulge their profits and what they paid in taxes. Companies uniformly despise having to pay this tax as it is. Making them pay it and disclose what they consider private information will drive them over the edge, or at least out of the city.

Unless Pennsylvania were to enact its own corporate tax disclosure measure, the city would be at a horrible disadvantage to its suburbs. Given how backward the Keystone State is in public disclosure of all kinds, the likelihood of that happening is never.

Council is in summer recess. I hope when it returns that it discloses that this bill is dead.