The Story Of Tax Reform

The Story Of Tax Reform In Philadelphia

DOWNLOAD NO CITY LIMITS: THE STORY OF TAX REFORM IN PHILADELPHIA

Philadelphia Forward published No City Limits: The Story Of Tax Reform In Philadelphia to place the current efforts to achieve tax reform in context and to show how Philadelphia has progressed from the city with the nation’s highest tax burden to the city with the most comprehensive plan for tax reform. The release of the 20,000-word chronicle comes as Philadelphia’s City Council again turns its attention to legislation to implement a key recommendation of the city’s Tax Reform Commission.

The accessible and compelling narrative explores how tax policy developed in Philadelphia over time until a series decisions (that may have made sense at the time) combined to create a tax structure that helped chase one quarter of the city’s population and job base from Philadelphia. Confronting the fact that the city could not continue to increase taxes on an increasingly mobile resident and business community was not a reality Philadelphia was prepared to face until the 1990s and No City Limits traces how tax reform progressed as an idea from a heretical notion to popular movement.

The document recounts the steps forward taken by the push for tax reform, reviews what still must be done to fix the city’s tax structure, and relates some lessons that can be learned from recent experiences.

No City Limits is prefaced by a short introduction:

In the past decade, Philadelphia has progressed from the city with the nation’s highest tax burden to the city with the most aggressive tax-reduction program and the most comprehensive plan for tax reform. This transformation is an inspiring story that proves that the power of a good idea is undeniable and that the force of public engagement and public leadership can make change happen.

The story of tax reform in Philadelphia is the story of an idea that — like many concepts that challenge the status quo — started off as a contrary notion, then built acceptance, and finally became conventional wisdom. The story of tax reform in Philadelphia, therefore, must begin when the idea of tax reform seemed immoderate, impractical, and impossible.