Hundreds of demonstrators marched through Center City yesterday morning in a show of support for a proposed City Council bill to lower the city's wage tax rates.
Carrying signs, chanting and blaring music, representatives from a wide range of Philadelphia organizations marched from Broad and Walnut streets to City Hall. The group hoped to send their message to City Council members loud and clear -- Philadelphia needs lower wage taxes to survive.
"City Council needs to go inside of this great hall and do what needs to be done," said Rev. Edwards, a speaker at the rally, standing outside City Hall. "If you're not going to do what the people want you to do, you'll be looking for a new job."
The coalition of groups included representatives from The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, local labor unions, the Philadelphia National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Greater Philadelphia First and others organizations.
Mayor John Street called for wage tax rates to be frozen at their 2003 rates in his annual budget address in January. But despite Street's claims that decreases in the city's wage tax would result in sharp cuts in city services, supporters of the rally claimed that continuing cuts are vital to the success of the city's economy.
"We need to invest in this city's future to make sure that there are this many people here 20 years from now," State Senator Vincent Fumo said at the rally. "This is the bill that counts for the future of this city."
Fumo is currently sponsoring legislation in the state senate that would reduce Philadelphia's wage tax.
The wide range of groups present at yesterday's rally was representative of the broad range of concern for the wage tax issue.
"This is not a racial issue," Philadelphia NAACP President Jerome Mondesire said. "It's a much broader issue.... Students get out [of college] with a degree and don't even think about working here because of the wage tax."
Following the march, City Council began the first of a series of hearings regarding a proposed wage tax reduction bill sponsored by Councilmen Frank DiCicco and Michael Nutter.
If passed, the bill would provide a series of reductions in the wage tax over the next five years. By 2007, rates would have dropped from the current 4.54 percent to roughly 4.2 percent.
"This bill needs to be passed in order to show residents and businesses who live here and who want to move here that this city is headed in the right direction in terms of tax policy," DiCicco spokesman David Fitz said.
Supporters of the bill have already garnered enough votes to pass the DiCicco-Nutter bill in Council. However, two-thirds of Council -- 12 members -- would need to vote in favor of the bill in order to override Street's expected veto. Currently, 11 members have expressed support for the bill.
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, however, is currently sponsoring her own piece of legislation that would freeze the current wage tax rates unless the city's economy sees a large improvement. Blackwell's legislation supports Street's position on the issue.
Despite the large and vocal crowds participating in the rally, some city officials are doubtful as to the impact yesterday's event will have on the Council's upcoming vote.
"I think this helps with reinforcing people's position," Councilman James Kenney spokesman John Hawkins said. "But I can't honestly say that something like [the rally] would put any pressure on people to change a vote. There are some people who care what the Chamber of Commerce has to say, and they're already with us, and there are some people who don't."
Kenney supports the DiCicco-Nutter bill.
City Controller Jonathan Saidel, however, maintains that those in City Council opposed to wage tax reductions will need to listen to yesterday's rally.
"In a democracy, you have to listen to the people," he said. "When you have over a thousand people out for a rally, it's something to be reckoned with."
