[QUOTE=DelBobcat]
That's correct, unless the Commonwealth Court decides it's unconstitutional.
Interestingly, in another battle with the state, Philadelphia would like to tax commercial properties at a higher rate than residential properties. This change would allow them to raise commercial property taxes in order to lower the city wage tax (which is currently about 3.9%, which everyone agrees is way too high). The plan has backing from the Philadelphia business community, including the Chamber of Commerce, the city's largest commercial landlord (Brandywine Realty Trust) and the city's largest private employers. They have said they would be willing to pay higher property taxes because lowering the wage tax will help them recruit top employees.
So what's the problem? The state constitution forbids taxing different types of property at different rates, so it would need to be amended. That can only be done through the legislature. However, the pro-local control, pro-business, state GOP has said they will only support the amendment if the city hands over more control of its taxation decisions to the state.
You seriously can't make this stuff up.
New Jersey has the same law.
Thing is,the tax rate is the same for all properties.But the amount of the real estate tax is based a property's value.
Commercial properties,have a much higher,so even though the rate is the same,they pay a lot more in taxes.
At one time they looked at doing what Philly wants to in N.J.
N.J. is solidly blue and the legislation went nowhere.
The problem is,you couldn't limit the ability to tax to Philly.
That would create chaos.Each town could decide not only whether to tax at different rates,but how much different.
That would lead to non stop litigation.
This isn't true at all. Pennsylvania already treats different municipalities very differently on a number of issues including taxation. Townships, boroughs, and cities are all treated differently for starters. Then, within these categories, there are different classes that are governed differently and are subject to different regulations. A first class township is different than a second class township and so on. Then counties are treated differently as well. Philadelphia is the only first class county and has very specific rules that pertain to only it. Likewise, Allegheny is the only second class county. There are eight classes of counties in total. So the state can pass a law that only applies to second class counties, which effectively singles out Allegheny without really saying so. For example, only second and first class counties can have their own sales tax--so both Philadelphia and Allegheny have implemented a sales tax on top of the state sales tax. To round all of this out, Philadelphia is both a city and county and operates under a home rule charter, which has its own set of rules and responsibilities.
The whole thing is a mess, to be honest. If you want to attack government inefficiency there's where you have a legitimate gripe. We have 2,561 municipalities in Pennsylvania. Everything would function a lot more efficiently and effectively if we combined a lot of them and we streamlined the class system. I know NJ has a similar issue with its many municipalities. States like Maryland, with their strong county governments and lower number of municipalities, operate much more efficiently and have lower levels of corruption.
In New Jersey we don't have different "classes" of Counties.
Individual Municipalities have different "forms" of government.But anything to do with revenue like sales tax must be approved by the state.
About the only thing the state has done is lower the sales tax in certain areas to encourage shopping there.
The state also sets the maximum a town can raise taxes each year.
For most budget items its 2%.
Its funny,in N.J. there's a push to get rid of County Government because,for the most part,it duplicates what individual towns do and they don't do it well.
There was a push by the state to "encourage" (force) municipalities to consolidate.
That went over like a lead balloon.
No one wants to give up home rule.
The state also found out that,for the most part,the smaller towns the state wanted to merge, operated more efficiently then larger cities.
One thing that has happened is "shared services" ,where several towns get together to purchase a piece of equipment they each need only occasionally,buy items like office supplies or pave roads.
Last Edited: 2/24/2017 11:59:20 AM by rpbobcat