(Update re Council position on tax reform below) Add
Jerry Sweeney, CEO at Brandywine Realty Trust, which owns most of the high-rise
offices in Center City and University City, to the business people who say
Philadelphia's progressive wage and hiring initatives are doing more harm than
good to the city's slow-grow workforce. (See my column in Sunday's Inquirer.)
Council's resolution blocking employers from asking
workers their past pay "had the right motivation: to increase awareness of
wage equity," says Sweeney. But Brandywine's own HR pros found the Philly law "fraught
with with both practical implementation ambiguities and significant risk for
future legal actions or non-hired employee claims ... I wish Council took a
more pragmatic approach" by talking to HR and job-search professionals, he
added.
"Philadelphia was not attacking the overriding problem. That problem is we don't have enough
jobs."
(See State of Center City report from Center City
District, shows Philly trailing other major cities and its own suburbs, while
office rents here remain stuck at 1990s levels, a sign of weak demand. Compare
to New York City, Boston, or Washington, D.C.)
"That problem is
caused by an arcane tax structure that stifles companies from growing in
the city and prevents companies from moving into the city," Sweeney
continues. "There is already a 20 to 30% [higher expense] premium for
companies to do business in the city of Philadelphia versus other places in the
region.
"That's why our job growth has been anemic compared
to other places in the country and why, even in these stronger economic times,
we have the lowest job growth rate among the 25 major cities in the United
States.
"My hope is that the city would finally have the
chutzpah to substantively address its
adversarial tax structure to one that encourages job growth, company
formation/retention and growing public revenues through economic expansion, not
by overtaxing a shrinking job base.
"On a daily basis our city has almost 40% of all
residents commuting outside the city to work — an unconscionably high
percentage and a true harbinger of future job loss," since workers tend to
migrate closer to jobs."
(Lauren Gilchrist, research director at commercial real
estate agency JLL's Philly office, confirms city out-commuters are 39%, citing
U.S. Census. The data shows that's not unusual vs. other cities: Philadelphians
commute out to suburban and other-metro jobs about the same as in San
Francisco, Seattle or Chicago, less than Detroit, L.A. or Boston, more than New
York, Houston or D.C. Out-commutes haven't been growing faster here than
elsewhere.)
Sweeney again: "A disciplined public policy approach
to grow our job base would send the
business community and our neighborhoods exactly the right message that
Philadelphia is open for business and welcomes new jobs.
"Legislation like this, while well intended, just
adds to the morass of complicating public policy that complicates our efforts
to grow jobs." (Emphases added)
UPDATE 1/31: While it agrees commercial real estate tax
rates ought to be "decoupled" from homeowners, City Council is on
record opposing the state tax bill Sweeney backs (HB 1871) because it ties
higher commercial-building taxes to specific tax cuts in other areas, which to
Philadelphia elected officials looks like sharp, unfair limits on the city's
ability to target its own spending.
Council members believe the city is attractive to
developers and many employers, and cite last year's Pew study arguing that it's
increasingly competitive with suburban counties when viewed by total tax load.
More on that from my colleague Caitlin McCabe here.
ALSO: Center City District/Central Philadelphia
Development Corp. today posted this report - Philadelphia: An Incomplete
Revival - offering "an explanation of how and why the city has lagged in
job growth and has one of the highest urban poverty rates," despite
"vibrant growth" in Center City and the Penn-Drexel area.
The report blames "Philadelphia’s nearly unique
reliance on wage and business taxes to finance the lion’s share of local
government." Those taxes "pushed residents to the suburbs,
shortchanged schools and resulted in the highest poverty rate among the nation’s
25 most populous counties," even as other East Coast cities -- Boston,
Washington, New York -- "forged ahead" and now have more jobs than in
1970, unlike Philadelphia.
The report backs tax reform, as contained in last year's
state House Bill 1871, which will allow the city to start charging higher
property taxes on office buildings and other commercial property.
Though higher commercial property taxes would seem to
damage Brandywine Realty and other big landlords, Sweeney and other backers say
that, given the city's low office rents -- stuck at 1990s levels -- higher
commercial-property taxes would be worth paying if it would allow the city to
cut business sales, profits and wage taxes.
The state bill, if passed a second time (amending the
state constitution), will allow Philadelphia to change its tax structure.
According to the District report, "the goal is to get the wage tax below
3% for the first time in 50 years and cut the net income portion of the
Business Income and Receipts Tax (BIRT) in half.
"This can lower barriers to employment growth,
reduce poverty and help Philadelphia participate in the more dynamic job growth
that most major cities already are enjoying."
Source: Philly.com
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