Should Pittsburgh tax non-residents who work in the city?

[squarian]

Bella gerant aliī, tū fēlix Lucius nūbe?

[I_Like_Spam]

I am a city resident, and IMHO, its not a good idea.

City residents would not see a decrease in their taxes, and suburbs would retaliate by taxing employees who live outside their jurisdictions.

This will just mean more taxes for everyone to pay.

[BrianTH]

Nam quae Mars aliīs, dat tibi regna OkCupid.

[supersoulty]

Here is an interesting, if impractical, solution to this problem. What if we passed a state law by which income can only be taxed in the municipality where it is earned? It would offer more money to the areas where there are certain stresses placed on the municipality by the commuter crowd, and it wouldn't affect the actual economic geography that much, since many of the businesses would not be directly affected, and those that would be would be the smaller ones which already pay their taxes to the municipality they are in. Some people would argue that CEO's would be tempted to move corporations out of the city, so they have a lower tax burden, but that's ridiculous... businesses will stay where it makes the most economic sense of them to be. They concentrate in certain locals because that is where it makes the most sense, not because of a two percent tax difference here and there for their top dogs.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by supersoulty

Some people would argue that CEO's would be tempted to move corporations out of the city, so they have a lower tax burden, but that's ridiculous... businesses will stay where it makes the most economic sense of them to be. They concentrate in certain locals because that is where it makes the most sense, not because of a two percent tax difference here and there for their top dogs.

But what is it about being downtown which makes the most sense other than the so called prestige of having an office in a tall building?
A law firm perhaps because of the courthouses downtown, but even then a small office downtown with a main office out of the city would work just as well.
I just don't see where the majority of businesses need to be located in the city in this day & age of technology, & is something which should be a concern on some level rather than completely overlooked

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by UKyank

But what is it about being downtown which makes the most sense other than the so called prestige of having an office in a tall building?

People have been studying this question for a long time, and there are in fact some well-supported answers. Part of it is that a centralized location allows for the largest possible talent pool. Part of it is that in certain industries mutual proximity between firms and clients is valuable. And part of it is that productivity in certain industries appears to increase with such clustering.

The bottomline is that if the higher cost of locating operations in CBDs was not economically beneficial, higher-cost CBDs would have disappeared decades ago. That hasn't happened, so the question is why, not whether, there is an economic benefit to locating certain kinds of operations in CBDs.