Nutter, Council wage war on taxes
Friday, April 17th, 2009
By: Susan Phillips
sphillips@whyy.org
Philadelphia City Council has taken a step toward raising the city wage tax. The move moves Mayor Nutter and some city council members closer to a showdown over the budget.
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State gaming law prevents the city from raising the wage tax unless certain criteria are met. Council wants the city's finance director to confirm that revenue has dropped 2 percent, and that would allow the city to raise the wage tax.
Both Councilman Frank DiCicco and Jim Kenney voted against the measure. Kenney says doing anything to raise wage taxes is stupid.
Kenney: It was the job-crushing tax that made this city infamous, around the country and drove more people out, more jobs out than any other tax. I don't want to raise any taxes, no one does, but to go back and try to get this wage tax back up again I think is really a silly way to go.
Kenney says raising wage taxes would not be supported by Harrisburg lawmakers, who could retaliate by preventing the city from raising the sales tax.
Mayor Nutter opposes a wage tax hike and instead, has proposed increasing sales and property taxes.