Pittsburgh needs a commuter tax (Philadelphia, Plum: low income, homes, tax)

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by Picksburghstillers

Oh here we go. Let’s squeeze more money out of those that work for a living and want nothing to do with paying for the city’s bad decisions. If the population is decline shouldn’t the city government shrink with it resulting in lower taxes? Why should suburbanites pay more to keep the city afloat and fix their bad decisions?

1. Philadelphia is its own county. Pittsburgh is not its own county.
2. Only 25 percent of Allegheny county residents actually live in the city.
3. Only 300,000 of the 2.3 million residents of the metro live in the city. That is a whopping 87 percent that live outside of the city limits with 13 percent in. Pittsburgh is mostly suburban with a small inner city that nobody wants to merge with. Otherwise it would’ve happened already. If you think it would be good to merge look at the north side. It was its own city with 140,000 residents when it was forced to merge in 1906. All the money was there. Now look at it. Less thank 40,000 people live on the north side and look what it has become the last 100 years. Tell me again how that merger was good.
4. Raising taxes on suburbanites would just speed the motivation to have companies with employees working remote.
5. The Allegheny county Executive yields more power and clout than Pittsburgh mayor.
6. No way the government reps in the state allow more taxes on 87 percent of the population to prop up 13 percent that live in the city. No way no how. Political power in Pittsburgh is the suburbs and not the city anymore.

Points 1,2, and 3 have nothing to do with a commuter tax


Point 4: and? If those people worked remotely, they would place zero burden on city resources. Of course, businesses don’t actually care about taxes I cured my their employees.

Point 5: no

Point 6: a commuter tax would not impact 87% of the county population. It would affect the 300k who commute into the city.

Do better, Zman.

[erieguy]

Commuter tax won’t happen. City simply needs to make itself more desireable and increase its tax base that way.

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by Picksburghstillers

Yep you are free to live where you want. The commuters can live in the city if they wanted to. They chose not to. As you said It will never happen. If it did it would be taxation without representation.

You would be wrong. This taxation without representation angle is incredibly stupid. All suburbanites have representation where they live. You were not entitled to prepresentation everywhere you pay tax. I can’t go on vacation and have the right to vote in California because I paid their sales tax. A person with homes in multiple states pay his property taxes for each home, but they don’t get a vote for each.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by gladhands

Philly taxes commuters' wages at nearly 3.5%. Commuters use city resources, and give nothing back.

https://www.wesa.fm/post/why-doesnt-...l-commuter-tax

Philadelphia does not have a "commuter tax". Philadelphia taxes wages earned within the city by residents and non-residents alike. People living inside the city are taxed at a higher rate, 3.8%, than people living outside the city. People living outside the city who pay Philadelphia's wage tax pay a reduced or no earned income tax to their home municipality. This is pretty much standard operating procedure for many municipalities across the country, and in no way is a "commuter tax".

[SteelCityRising]

I’m a city resident.

I do not support a commuter tax.

As has already been mentioned only ~13% of the metro area resides within the city limits due to suburban sprawl. It is NOT in the best interest of we city residents to antagonize suburbanites, many of whom do spend some of their discretionary income within city limits to support city restaurants, retailers, nightlife, etc.

I don’t think the ~300,000 residents of the city limits alone could sustain all of our current healthy and vibrant business districts. I mean our most thriving business districts (Lawrenceville, South Side Flats, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, and Strip District) are regularly-patronized by city residents and suburbanites alike because most suburbanites realize that despite enjoying lower wage taxes, (arguably) better public schools, lower violent crime rates, and larger lot sizes in the suburbs most of their suburbs still can’t hold a candle to what the city offers in terms of “fun”. I mean I just did the “Joy of Cookies Tour” with some tourist friends. We walked up and down Butler Street eating free cookies and buying Christmas gifts at new local merchants. You can’t do something like that along 228 in Cranberry Township or along Route 19 in Peters Township. Similarly, me and my new partner schlep from the city out to the suburbs to do some shopping. We’ve found that the Robinson Township Dollar Tree, for example, seems to be better than the ones nearer to us in the North Side or East Liberty. If I, as a city resident, was behooved to stay out of Robinson Township I’d be ticked off.

The city and suburbs need each other. The suburbanites, despite bashing our bike lanes and pro-LGBT policies, need the city for hospitals, colleges, professional sports games, concerts, museums, and fun walkable neighborhoods for “date night”. The city residents need suburbanites to keep pouring into the city and shaking their fat wallets upside down to keep our small businesses open. I don’t want a city of just bland lofts, office buildings, colleges, and hospitals. I also want lots of businesses within walking distance of my home, and if the only way that can happen is to kiss the arses of suburbanites, then so be it.

As it stands now Pittsburgh’s taxes are NOT so high that businesses will flee to the ‘burbs. Contrariwise more people from the suburbs commute into the city daily to work than there are city residents leaving the city to work in the suburbs, and the ratio of “jobs-to-population” in the city proper is roughly 1:1. With more employers coming to the Strip District, Oakland, and Bakery Square in the coming years the city’s percentage of overall job share in the metro area may even increase as the city’s population continues to decrease, meaning in another decade there may be more jobs in the city limits than population.

Ideally I wish more suburbanites would consider living in the city limits, but since that’s not going to happen I at least want their money.

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

Philadelphia does not have a "commuter tax". Philadelphia taxes wages earned within the city by residents and non-residents alike. People living inside the city are taxed at a higher rate, 3.8%, than people living outside the city. People living outside the city who pay Philadelphia's wage tax pay a reduced or no earned income tax to their home municipality. This is pretty much standard operating procedure for many municipalities across the country, and in no way is a "commuter tax".

I can’t find any information to support the bolded section. It’s also not fairly standard. Very few municipalities charge a wage tax to people who reside outside of the city.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

The city and suburbs need each other. The suburbanites, despite bashing our bike lanes and pro-LGBT policies, need the city for hospitals, colleges, professional sports games, concerts, museums, and fun walkable neighborhoods for “date night”. The city residents need suburbanites to keep pouring into the city and shaking their fat wallets upside down to keep our small businesses open. I don’t want a city of just bland lofts, office buildings, colleges, and hospitals. I also want lots of businesses within walking distance of my home, and if the only way that can happen is to kiss the arses of suburbanites, then so be it.

.

Painting with a very broad brush, doncha think?

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Painting with a very broad brush, doncha think?

Always

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by gladhands

I can’t find any information to support the bolded section. It’s also not fairly standard. Very few municipalities charge a wage tax to people who reside outside of the city.

Look on most any suburban Philadelphia municipal website. See, e.g., Springfield Township, Montgomery County.

[216facts]

Originally Posted by gladhands

I can’t find any information to support the bolded section. It’s also not fairly standard. Very few municipalities charge a wage tax to people who reside outside of the city.

Inner ring suburbs in my area do it by "reciprocity". The generally accepted city income tax in my area is 2%. So if I live in a suburb and work in the center city, I pay 2% to the center city and my suburb forgives that 2% tax, this is reciprocity. But some of the inner ring suburbs only forgive 1% or only 0.5%, making the effective city income tax rate 3.5%! This was done by several upper class and middle class inner ring suburbs in an attempt to keep their city services at a very high level and promote very strict zoning and housing regulations - to keep the inner city poverty from creeping into their borders but also to keep real estate prices high to support schools via real estate taxes. IMO, the strategy did help stave off what I will call "poverty creep" from the center city into the inner ring suburb. On the other hand, I also think it had the longer term effect of driving the middle class out of these inner ring suburbs - into the outer suburbs where full reciprocity is expected. Nothing is certain but death and taxes, funny how they're mutually exclusive.