Philadelphia’s Fiscal Mess

In a great post on Philadelphia Magazine’s Philly Post, former news anchor Larry Mendte asks why there isn;t more outrage here in Philadelphia in response to the significant tax increases that City Council has dumped on us in what will surely be a losing effort to try and shore up the City’s woeful fiscal situation. Where, asks Mendte, is our Rand Paul? Mendte is right. At a time when the City is teetering on a fiscal precipice, with a shrinking tax base and a miserable business climate that os getting worse, Council and the Mayor decide to hike taxes. Brilliant. I suppose it is completely lost on the geniuses on City Council and in the Mayor’s office that the City is in the mess its in NOT because those of us who live here and do business here are taxed too little. Philadelphia is a basket case because it is probably the most inhospitable place in which to do business this side of Caracas. Instead of jacking up property taxes and heaping more costs on the City’s productive citizens, or looking more closely for ways to reduce the size of government and run its operations more efficiently, the City should be looming to expand its tax base by making itself an attractive place in which to start and run a business. An expanding tax base will provide more than enough revenue to run the City. But not here. Instead, Mayor Nutter and the dopes on City Council choose to perpetuate discredited and failed fiscal policies, to all of our detriment. Until the City government realizes that its tax and regulatory structure have made it too expensive and complicated to start and run a business here, and do something about it, Philadelphia will continue to deteriorate and circle the drain. I only hope that its not too late when we find our Rand Paul.