THOUSANDS OF CALLS FOR TAX REFORM DELUGE CITY HALL

Today (December 7th) The Philadelphia Daily News offered its latest call for tax reform in a clever editorial:

City Hall's cool new lighting is getting a lot of news, but the real story at City Hall is the thousands and thousands of calls for tax reform that are flooding City Council -- arriving by phone, fax, letter, fax from every corner of the city.  Read two of the dozens of emails sent by members of Philadelphia Forward's constituency for change just this week:

Dear elected officials:

As a business owner, employer, property owner, resident and voter in the City of Philadelphia, I strongly urge you to vote for tax reform.  Every nonpartisan group studying the issue agrees on this.  And, as a registered Democrat, I am ashamed at the reticence--if not downright aversion--of the Party to change. Not to speak of the waste, patronage and cronyism that even an FBI probe has eliminated. But that is for another angry letter.

We know we can afford tax reform and everyone from business attraction experts to PICA, the city's fiscal watchdog demands at least a five-year schedule of cuts to generate certainty about the future. 

Pass the legislation to phase out the job-killing business privilege tax.  Say YES to tax reform and say NO to petty personal politics.  Or you might find yourselves out in the cold, like our Democratic brethren in New York City.

Dear elected officials:

I have lived in Center City for 15+ years and I am currently in talks for expansion of my business to potentially hire 25+ employess to help service a multi-million dollar client. As such I will have
to expand my office space. I have to tell you that I would love keep my business here but the Business Privilege Tax is looking like a HUGE road block to doing so. It has never made sense as to why there was such a tax in the first place. It is truly counter intuitive to business growth. Small businesses become large businesses. Additionally, as a small business owner, I and my fellow small business owners feel abandoned by our elected officials who award the multi-Billion dollar Comcast tax abatements while we are forced to bear the brunt of this brutal misguided BPT.

Tax reform in Philadelphia will come. Are you going to be among the elected officials who make historic change? Are you going to sit by and do nothing? In the mean time my business and I must look beyond the potentials that life in the city has to offer. It's a sad reality but one that you all have the ability to  correct.

Pass the legislation to phase out the job-killing business privilege tax.  Say YES to tax reform and say NO to petty personal politics.  A growing city a thankful citizenry -- and maybe even a vote in 2007 -- will be your reward.

Today, seven City Councilmembers (who have voted against phasing out the job-killing Business Privilege Tax to grow) stand between Philadelphia and job growth.  They have been told by the voter-established Tax Reform Commission, the Mayor's handpicked 21st Century Review Forum transition team, the Mayor's Economic Summit, and thousands of city residents and employers that we should phase out the job-killing Business Privilege Tax to grow jobs in Philadelphia. 

The very same Stubborn Seven who are standing in the way of desperately needed tax reform have approved many tax breaks, incentives, and sweetheart subsidies for the favored special interests while they have voted again and again and again and again against the tax reform the experts and their constituents have called for.  Tell them tax reform cannot be all for some and none for all...

If City Council does not hear from you, the pols and the special interests will win.  Tell them you want them to vote for YOU or you will vote against them in 2007!