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Consensus on taxes

Consensus among candidates doesn't make the choice any easier for voters. But the mayoral hopefuls' general agreement on the controversial subject of taxes is a sign of progress for the city. At least ostensibly, Philadelphia's political establishment has come to understand the gravity of the city's tax problem and broadly concur on the solution.

Consensus among candidates doesn't make the choice any easier for voters. But the mayoral hopefuls' general agreement on the controversial subject of taxes is a sign of progress for the city. At least ostensibly, Philadelphia's political establishment has come to understand the gravity of the city's tax problem and broadly concur on the solution.

Thanks to an array of studies noted by the candidates on today's op-ed page, as well as the unforgiving lessons of experience, it's become plain that Philadelphia relies too heavily on wage and business taxes that discourage growth rather than the property taxes that fuel more successful cities. (For the same reason, we can probably skip candidate Lynne Abraham's proposal to form yet another commission.)

In fact, the nature of the problem is so well established that the city has begun to do something about it, glacially reducing the wage tax over the past decade and, more recently, giving small firms some relief from the city's business levies. Mayor Nutter has also given his successor a head start on defensible property taxation by doing much to rationalize valuations.

But with six different municipal taxes raised over the past eight years, growth and employment well behind the national average, and the wage tax still looming near 4 percent, the next mayor won't be in any danger of running out of things to do.

It's particularly heartening that all the current candidates say they would concentrate on further reducing the wage tax and reforming business taxes. As Jim Kenney and Melissa Murray Bailey note, the city also has to adjust its property assessments to capture land value and avoid penalizing development or enabling blight. Kenney, Nelson Diaz, and Anthony Williams also sensibly suggest pursuing state authorization to tax commercial properties differently from residential properties, though high political and legal hurdles stand in the way.

Diaz ably articulates the distance between proposing these solutions and realizing them. "Report after report has highlighted our dysfunctional tax system, but change has nonetheless been elusive," he notes, presenting "a challenge to redouble our efforts and hold elected officials accountable for actually achieving change rather than just talking about it."

The candidates' own words on this and other issues should play an important role in Philadelphians' decision. But the voters also have to make a difficult judgment about which candidate has the courage and capability to match words with action.