NEWS
April 29, 1986 | By William W. Sutton Jr., Inquirer Staff Writer
City Councilman Edward A. Schwartz said yesterday that he would vote against increasing the property tax and proposed that the city's business community continue to provide its current level of taxes, not less, to help pay for operating the public schools. Rather than support the 6.5 percent property-tax increase that Mayor Goode proposed last week, Schwartz said, City Council should reject the business-tax reduction that Goode proposed in March and that is in the city's revenue estimate for fiscal 1987, which begins July 1. Schwartz said that if the business-tax reduction were rejected, there would $14 million more available for the school district in each of the next two fiscal years.
NEWS
November 5, 2010 | By Miriam Hill, Inquirer Staff Writer
Councilman Bill Green took aim at the city's so-called blogger tax Thursday, introducing legislation that would exempt bloggers and others whose work is a hobby from certain city taxes. The national media went negative on Philadelphia in August after the city increased efforts to collect fees for the business-privilege tax license and related levies. Some of the people who got letters saying they may owe the city money were bloggers, setting off a wave of criticism that the city's policies would drive away young, tech-savvy residents.
NEWS
September 5, 1993 | By Vyola P. Willson, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
A "tax commando" who earned the nickname collecting millions in unpaid taxes for the City of Philadelphia is pursuing scores of people who are not paying taxes to the borough. Attorney Nicholas Panarella has sent out a cascade of letters in the past month. Some of those receiving them don't live or maintain offices in West Chester. But they profit from work in the county seat and haven't paid the business tax - a licensing fee that is $10 a year for those who make less than $15,000 and $150 for those who make more.
NEWS
May 1, 1986 | By William W. Sutton Jr., Inquirer Staff Writer
As an alternative to Mayor Goode's proposed 6.5 percent property-tax increase, City Councilman John F. Street recommended yesterday that the city next year delete its $8 million in funding for the proposed Center City convention center, increase one business tax and keep another at its current level. Street also proposed reducing the parking tax by 25 percent and providing the convention center revenue by further increasing taxes on business. G. Fred DiBona Jr., president of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, called Street's proposal "counterproductive.
NEWS
August 6, 1986 | By Patricia O'Brien, Inquirer Washington Bureau
Tax bill negotiations hit an impasse yesterday as House and Senate conferees, meeting together for the first time in more than a week, found themselves unable to agree on how much to raise business taxes. "We are 90 percent in accord," said Rep. Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.). "That 10 percent can stop us. We've got a snag. " Bob Packwood (R., Ore.), Senate Finance Committee chairman, said he would offer a new proposal to his own conferees later this week that could narrow what is now a $27 billion gap between the respective business tax increases proposed by the two chambers.
NEWS
November 27, 1988 | By Shelly Phillips, Special to The Inquirer
The proposed business-privilege tax, the target of heated opposition in the past, may finally become a reality in West Chester. The tax has been brought forth repeatedly as a way out of the borough's budget woes. Each time, members of the business community lobbied hard enough against the proposed tax to shoot it down. But this time it's different. The tax, proposed by Councilman Mitch Crane, may very well pass. "I've heard all the arguments for and against this tax over the course of the past two or three years," said Finance Committee chairman Richard A. Fazio, "and I don't see any other option.
NEWS
November 1, 1987 | By Jeff Gammage, Inquirer Staff Writer
Caln Township merchants continued their assault on a proposed business tax Thursday, pounding the Board of Commissioners with the now-familiar complaints that the tax would be unfair and would drive away businesses. There was evidence, however, that the business people were making headway in their fight against the proposed tax, which the commissioners are considering to offset a loss of $120,000 in federal funds and to provide more police and highway services in the growing township.
NEWS
July 2, 2004 | By Marcia Gelbart and Angela Couloumbis INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
At the last possible minute, Mayor Street yesterday put the kibosh on a bill that would have axed hundreds of millions of dollars in punishing business taxes through 2017. Shortly afterward, this year's grueling budget process officially came to an end. The mayor signed off on City Council's $3.4 billion budget and its plan to further cut the city wage-tax rate, an average savings of $88 a year by 2009 for a person earning $30,746, Philadelphia's median salary. "This is not an easy decision, and certainly not a popular one," Street wrote to Council in a letter explaining his actions, "but I lived through the dark days of our fiscal crisis and I do not want to squander what we have achieved in the last 12 years by returning to them.
NEWS
March 13, 1988 | By Melinda Deanna Anderson, Special to The Inquirer
A plan to tax businesses to pay for road-improvement projects is being pursued in West Whiteland, and the Board of Supervisors plans to air the proposal at a hearing next month. The board, meeting Monday, scheduled the hearing for 7:30 p.m. April 28 at the Township Building. The proposal was prepared by the township Highway Network Improvement Committee, which was formed by the board to study traffic problems in the township. The committee said in a report that the expected cost of the improvements would be about $6 million, which could be raised through the assessment of business properties in the township.
NEWS
November 8, 1987 | By Jeff Gammage, Inquirer Staff Writer
Another large crowd of angry merchants confronted the Caln Township Board of Commissioners on Wednesday, hoping to kill a proposed business tax. The tax plan was attacked by almost every speaker. The commissioners presented several alternatives, one of which was to skip the business tax entirely. But that probably would delay construction of a planned Route 30 bypass, the G.O. Carlson Boulevard, which is needed to siphon heavy traffic from Route 30. About 225 people have attended meetings to speak out against the tax, but Wednesday, one person spoke in its favor.