Make Big Business and Big “NonProfits” Pay their fair share in Philadelphia and stop shifting the tax burden to our Homeowners, Tenants and Working People!
Why is this important?
Over the last two decades there’s been a steady shift in the tax burden in Philly from the rich to the poor. Business taxes have been cut for giant corporations, including many that aren’t even located in Philadelphia. The wage tax has been cut in a way that makes benefits bigger the richer you are. Meanwhile City Council has repealed a wage tax cut for the working poor.
Also the sales tax has increased to 8%, badly hurting ordinary working people. And property taxes have increased 3 times since 2010. Those hikes have hurt poor homeowners and have been passed on to tenants throughout the City.
Next year homeowners and tenants may get hit by another big tax increase while many of the biggest commercial property owners like Franklin Mills and Liberty Place actually get tax cuts. The large non-profit universities and hospitals –- like Penn, Temple, Drexel and the big hospitals—get the biggest breaks of all. They own many of the 10.3% of tax-exempt properties in Philly, a proportion larger than in any other US city, and they will continue paying nothing, not even for commercial activities and properties that they rent out for profit.
The Mayor and Council must shift the burden of taxes away from poor and working people to make big business, and big “nonprofits” pay for the services that all the city residents need.
