Philadelphia Budget Gap Solution
According to KYW’s Mike Dunn’s report this past Thursday Councilman DiCicco has proposed a 12-percent real estate tax in lieu of the Mayor’s $300 flat rate trash tax. Property tax is a common staple. A soda “sin” tax, flat rate trash tax that penalizes the poorest in this city, or real estate tax that protects all those already Abated Properties, slumlords, and speculators while levying heavy burdens on others is not a solution in a city that is experiencing a 10.6 percent unemployment rate. We at the Henry George Foundation of America do not support band-aid, scotch tape tax policy. Instead, we propose a remedy, a fair, concrete tool that penalizes speculators, encourages healthier communities and combats sprawl.
The economic realities in Philadelphia this year are such that our elected officials are once again examining alternatives to Mayor Nutter’s budget proposal. According to KYW’s Mike Dunn’s report this past Thursday Councilman DiCicco has proposed a 12-percent real estate tax in lieu of the Mayor’s $300 flat rate trash tax.
“The common trend for cities since the 1980s has been one of declining federal support - from the Reagan Administration period to the present day. This has caused them both to search for new sources of revenue and to increase reliance on existing sources of revenue. Property tax is a common staple.” Mayraj Fahim, government adviser
With a 2011 projected budget deficit of $125- $150 million deficit that has an anticipated growth rate of $500 - $700 million over the next 5 years a proposed band-aid soda and flat rate trash tax is not going to do any more than last year’s patch of a regressive sales tax increase. As reported in the Philadelphia Business Journal this week, the sales tax fell below the anticipated projected revenue just as our sister organization, the Center for the Study of Economics had indicated it would.
A soda “sin” tax, flat rate trash tax that penalizes the poorest in this city, or real estate tax that protects all those already Abated Properties, slumlords, and speculators while levying heavy burdens on others is not a solution in a city that is experiencing a 10.6 percent unemployment rate.
We at the Henry George Foundation of America do not support band-aid, scotch tape tax policy. Instead, we propose a remedy, a fair, concrete tool that penalizes speculators, encourages healthier communities and combats sprawl.
See how homeowners within each Philadelphia City Council District would immediately benefit from just a small shift from the building tax onto the land tax.
