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Blocking the (honor) box: A 400% fee hike, three years late
Bills - increased by thousands of dollars - are due by the end of the month. The fee increase dates to a city ordinance passed in 2009, that L&I apparently only just found out about.
Blocking the (honor) box: A 400% fee hike, three years late
Last week, newspaper publishers around Philly received invoices for their annual honor-box license fees from the city License Issuance Unit — and contained within the envelope was something of a rude awakening. The jolt: The fees had gone up by 400 percent, from $10 apiece to $50. So a publication with, say, 250 boxes, saw its bill go from $2,500 to $12,500, with not much notice: The new, higher bills are due at the end of September.
Perhaps they shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, the invoice explained, the annual fee was increased by Bill No. 090712 — legislation that passed, with little discussion, back in 2009. It had been introduced by former Councilman Frank DiCicco, then chair of the Committee on Streets and Services. The bill drew support from the Center City District (CCD), which had successfully pushed to “corral” many boxes downtown, and opposition from … no one.
CCD chief executive Paul Levy explains that CCD had been working for years to clean up the boxes, which it saw as eyesores. "We were accused of trying to stamp out the freedom of speech and press and we accused all the publishers of being messy snobs," he recalls. Ahead of the 2009 legislation, he says, “There was some frustration with the maintenance and cleanliness of the boxes, and L&I didn’t have any resources to survey them. So we said the cost of the permit should cover the cost of enforcement.”
L&I spokeswoman Maura Kennedy says licensing fees aren’t revenue-producers; they’re based on administrative costs — as they must be, according to various First Amendment-based court decisions on newsrack pricing and regulation disputes. (And, she argues, CP should clean up its boxes before questioning the price. “You guys are the top violators,” she says. “There’s whole blogs set up in the city dedicated to how poorly you guys maintain your honor boxes.”)
However, the city’s per-box administrative cost — and information as to whether it had, in fact, escalated by 400 percent — wasn’t immediately available. And as to why the fee change took three years to implement, Kennedy wasn’t sure. But one L&I official explained in an email to publishers that after the ordinance took effect, “We were never made aware. We became aware and have put the fees in place.”
Whether that means Philly newspapers were being undercharged in the interim is unclear, however the fee does put Philly newsracks in line with the most expensive in the country. New York, D.C. and Chicago don't appear to charge for newsracks; Boston charges $25 apiece; San Francisco charges $50. The only place we've found that charges more: Clark County, Nevada, where "smut racks" for publications packed with escort ads play $65 a box.
$50 doesn't sound unreasonable to me. Up the rate on your hooker ads to make up the difference.— dangerclose14- You deserve it for your support of the corrupt democrat machine.
They are screwing everyone on fee increases. The sad thing is many of these fees still only pay for the worse than useless bureaucrats that collect them.
But again, this is how you guys think society should work... So pay up!— samac
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