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Death Watch: Progressive low-income wage tax credit on the chopping block
"Some members of Council told me that, because they were not ready to meet the mayor on the amount of education funding he wanted from the budget and also on when to start AVI, that they wanted to appease him."
Death Watch: Progressive low-income wage tax credit on the chopping block
When Philly City Council meets tomorrow, they're expected to move forward with the repeal of a eight-year-old piece of progressive legislation that has never yet been put into effect. The law in question: A low-income city wage-tax rebate that would put Philly's tax system in line with state and federal breaks such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the commonwealth's Tax Back Program. The wage-tax credit, to take effect in 2016, would have been the first progressive adjustment in the city's history — but now the law, which has seen multiple challenges, rollbacks and delays, will likely be stricken altogether. This will allow Mayor Nutter, presumably, to push forward with across-the-board wage-tax reductions in 2014. A group of opponents including labor unions, progressive activist organizations, homeless and low-income advocates call it a cynical and unfair bit of politicking — or, perhaps, Council's effort to make nice with the mayor after a protracted brawl over property tax reassessments.
Sherrie Cohen, a member of the Fair Share Coalition whose father, the late Councilman David Cohen, considered the tax credit among his great achievements, has been pushing Council not to go through with the repeal. A vote in the Committee of the Whole last week went 9-to-8 in favor of repealing; those who voted to repeal were Council President Darrell Clarke, Majority Leader Curtis Jones, and a mix of Republican and Democratic council members: Bill Green, Bill Greenlee, Bobby Henon, Curtis Jones, Brian O’Neill, David Oh, Blondell Reynolds Brown, and Marian Tasco.
Cohen has fought against repealing the bill twice before, in 2006 and 2008. Now, she says, politics could win the day. In her efforts to lobby Council, she says, politics has been the primary excuse she's heard. "The problem is, Council leadership has taken this on and they're asking for other members of council leadership to stay with them. One council member said he'd need to be released by leadership in order to change his vote," she says.
"Some members of Council told me that, because they were not ready to meet the mayor on the amount of education funding he wanted from the budget and also on when to start AVI, that they wanted to appease him and provide him with some support for one of his measures. So they are agreeing with him. I said to one Council member, 'Are you ready to throw hundreds of thousands of Philadelphians under the bus to appease the mayor for something that won't even go into effect for four years?' The retort I got was that, 'Your father was always engaged in negotiations.' But my response was that he didn't negotiate his principles."
The program, which would have applied to people at 200 percent of the poverty line, was first adopted over a mayoral veto, and has faced mayoral opposition ever since, first from John Street and more recently from Mayor Nutter. Cohen claims it will cost much less than a straight wage-tax cut: $54 million over five years, as opposed to $80 million for an across the board cut.
The offices of Clarke and Jones did not respond to requests for comment yesterday. Councilwoman Marian Tasco, whose 9th District includes areas that would likely benefit enormously from the tax credit — places like Olney and Logan — said her decision was not political but financial. "Now is not the time that we can do this," she says. "All this stuff comes on the heels of a real downturn in the market, and we have to be very mindful and take this day by day. We have to carry forward in the five-year plan so we need to clear [the question of low-income tax credits] up right now."
She says that doesn't mean that a low-income tax credit wouldn't ever be possible. "Circumstances change," she says. "I find in this business you can always come back."
For once council does the right thing. This was terrible policy from the start. Cohen was the worst of the old leftist pols who did nothing but drive the city into the ground over the last 50 years.
The city needs to cut the wage tax rate for everyone, not create a group of people exempt from paying it.— samac- Raise your hand if you believe the current mayor is even capable of saying the words 'tax cut.'— jonline
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