Tax credit for poor in Philadelphia surviving

A tax credit for low-income Philadelphians still has a glimmer of life.

The Philadelphia tax credit was introduced and championed by the late Councilman David Cohen and was set to take effect in 2016.  An effort to repeal the legislation was placed on hold in Council, and Cohen’s daughter Sherrie Cohen is pleased.

“To repeal this historic ordinance that was fought hard for in 2004 and there’s been other repeal efforts by Mayor Street and Mayor Nutter before and we’re hoping council will continue to hold the bill not vote on it this year and have a full discussion on wage tax,” said Cohen.

Cohen feels the repeal was overshadowed by other issues.

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“All of the attention of council is focused on education funding, on property tax issues no one is paying attention to it,” she said.

If it stays in place, the credit would give a $300 rebate to the average low income Philadelphia taxpayer.

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