NEWS
May 17, 2013 | By Joseph N. DiStefano, Inquirer Staff Writer
There's nothing like crusading politicians who want to boost taxes on drinkers and smokers to unite Philadelphia bar owners against City Hall. "What we have here is the perfect storm," moaned John Longacre, owner of American Sardine Bar at 18th and Federal Streets and head of the Philadelphia Licensed Beverage Association, whose activity rises and falls in rough correlation with the perceived municipal threat to owners' income. Longacre was responding to City Council President Darrell L. Clarke's proposal, officially endorsed by Mayor Nutter on Wednesday, to boost the city's liquor-by-the-drink tax to 15 cents per dollar from 10 cents, and Nutter's new plan to slap a $2-a-pack tax atop the $6 or so it now costs Philadelphia smokers to score a pack of Marlboros.
NEWS
May 17, 2013 | By Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer
To raise money for the desperate Philadelphia School District, Mayor Nutter proposed Wednesday to tax cigarettes at $2 a pack and raise the city's liquor-by-the-drink tax from 10 percent to 15 percent. Alongside School Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. and others at City Hall, Nutter also pledged to improve city tax collections. The mayor estimated that his plan would raise an additional $95 million for schools in 2013-14 and $135 million in the second year. Nutter stressed that the money would benefit not only students enrolled in district schools but those who attend the 84 taxpayer-funded charter schools in the city.
NEWS
May 17, 2013 | By Robert Moran, Inquirer Staff Writer
At Brownie's Irish Pub in Old City during Wednesday's happy hour, bartender Robert McDevitt was not happy to hear about the city's new drink-tax proposal. "I'm going to be losing twice," he said, fearing both a loss of business where he works and higher prices when he goes out to other establishments. Stephen Hopson, owner of Brownie's, said it was unfair for businesses like his to be targeted for new taxes. "The suburbs will be 15 percent cheaper," he said. Hopson predicted that some bars would close.
NEWS
May 17, 2013 | BY JOHN MORITZ & SEAN COLLINS WALSH, Daily News Staff Writer walshSE@phillynews.com, 215-854-4172
IF MAYOR NUTTER gets his way, smokers and drinkers could be forking up some big dough in city taxes - but not all of them are fuming about it. Sonny Deniro, a server at Jon's Bar & Grille at 3rd and South, said he opposed the new sin taxes - until he found out the money would go to the schools. City schools "need help," said Deniro, 27, a parent of a child who hasn't entered school yet. "They should raise it up even more. " Nutter proposed two new taxes yesterday - a $2-per-pack cigarette tax and a 5 percentage-point increase in the city's "liquor-by-the-drink" tax - to raise $67 million for the financially beleaguered Philadelphia School District.
NEWS
May 16, 2013
Brick-and-mortar retailers won a well-deserved and long-overdue victory last week when the Senate passed a bill requiring their online counterparts to collect state sales taxes. As consumers have turned increasingly to the Web to make purchases over the last decade, conventional retailers have been put at an unfair disadvantage. They have to collect state sales taxes, while most Internet retailers don't. That hands online retailers a virtual discount equivalent to the cost of the sales tax. In New Jersey, the tax is 7 percent; in Pennsylvania, it's 6 percent.
NEWS
May 14, 2013
I AM TIRED of hearing legislators crying "no new taxes. " Why? What's wrong about tax increases? Would you rather have new and more efficient roads and bridges, or no new taxes? Would you rather have a new and more efficient infrastructure, or no new taxes? Would you rather have a functioning and more efficient school system, or no new taxes? I could go on and on, but these are just a few serious problems that need to be addressed now. If these can't happen unless taxes are raised, then I say raise the taxes.
NEWS
May 12, 2013 | By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. IRS agents singled out dozens of organizations for additional reviews because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their exemption applications, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.
NEWS
May 10, 2013 | By Joelle Farrell, Inquirer Trenton Bureau
TRENTON - Assembly Democrats and a cabinet official bickered Thursday over whether the Republican governor's policies have produced real property tax relief and whether the administration has given sufficient guidance to towns on spending for affordable housing projects. Richard Constable, commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, told the Assembly Budget Committee that Gov. Christie's reforms, including changes to pensions and benefits and an annual 2 percent cap, are helping to slow property-tax increases.
NEWS
May 10, 2013 | BY REGINA MEDINA, Daily News Staff Writer medinar@phillynews.com, 215-854-5985
IF THE school district doesn't receive additional funding and operates next year under an austerity plan, the resulting scenario would devastate education for the children of the city, Mayor Nutter asserted yesterday. The district cuts essentially would mean "buildings that are open and people who are there," Nutter said. "But it is not an educational opportunity. " Schools would go without assistant principals, guidance counselors and extracurricular activities, Nutter said to students and staff at Jackson School in South Philadelphia.
NEWS
May 8, 2013 | Associated Press
TRENTON - An Assembly panel has moved forward with measures to create a constitutional amendment that would double the income limit for New Jersey seniors and disabled people to qualify for a property tax rebate. The measures approved Monday by the Appropriations Committee call for raising the income eligibility from $10,000 to $20,000, before Social Security benefits. It now goes before the full Assembly, though a hearing date has not yet been scheduled. If approved by voters, the amendment would make an additional 100,000 taxpayers eligible for an annual $250 rebate.