When Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan first started touting a 17% increase in sales tax last year, the NRCC slammed him pretty hard in a short video, hinting that he was telling some group how to spin his tax hike. Actually, that's exactly what he was doing. Charlie Dent's congressional campaign has uploaded six videos to its Youtube channel, showing Callahan's cynical presentation to a dubious Lehigh County Council of Governments. In this little lecture, we learn:
(1) Callahan is the Lehigh Valley Partnership's bitch, doing the bidding of a collection of rich old white dudes. I thought that was why God created Republicans.
(2) Callahan is a spinning instructor, telling COG members how to avoid calling this a tax increase. He also explains how a deal with Philly legislators would enable the LV delegation to vote against this proposal, even though they secretly support it, for political cover;
(3) CACLV bossman Alan Jennings, an advocate for the poor, endorses a regressive sales tax hike because it comes from the rich old white dudes in the Lehigh Valley Partnership. They fund him.
From John Callahan:
"Who would be in favor of a 1% tax?"
Alan Jennings raises hand. (Audience laughs).
"Uuup. Alan Jennings. That's good to know"
"Hopefully, the word 'tax' will no longer be part of your description of what this is about."
"This idea, which has now grown to be a statewide idea, was actually born here in the Lehigh Valley. It was born out of the Lehigh Valley Partnership - a group of CEOs and leaders throughout the Valley that have worked towards greater regionalization. They have done that in various forms; they're pushing the bi-county health bureau, they're pushing a lot of greater Lehigh Valley regionalization initiatives. This is one of them."
[Governor Rendell is unwilling to dip into the tax charged at liquor stores to help the cities because it would create a hole in his own budget. But he told Callahan and Allentown Mayor Edwin Pawlowski that if they could come up with something else, he'd support them.]
"So I brought that information back to the Lehigh Valley and I met with the [Lehigh Valley] Partnership and ... I said, 'We have this thing we've been kicking around in the Lehigh Valley that would be a 1% sales tax increase for Lehigh and Northampton County ... .' Maybe we could work this in such a way that it would be - number one - an independent revenue source that the Governor said he needed, but do something that would apply statewide, and not just in the Lehigh Valley.
"When we went to the Governor initially with this proposal about the sales tax - the county optional sales tax - his initial reaction was 'I love it, but you gotta' get the counties. Get the counties on board, then we can start talking.'
"We got the Counties on board. Slowly and surely, once the counties came together, we brought the boroughs association in; we brought the township commissioners in ...
"We've been working very hard collectively - all five local government associations - trying to sell this in Harrisburg, trying to sell it to our local legislators.
"You'll see we no longer refer to it as a 1% local county optional sales tax; we refer to it as the Bill is described in its current form now as The Local Property Tax Relief Act because that's really what the outcome of this legislation will be. Now, if I had started the presentation and said, 'Who's for The Local Property Tax Relief Act?' everyone would probably raise their hands except for maybe Mr. Jennings.
"It's a 1% sales tax. It's collected on the same basis that the current tax is collected ... .
"There's something in there for everyone.
"There's politics here. We all recognize that this is, after all, perceived as a tax. And we're trying to give everybody adequate cover. ... We are trying to give everybody along this chain adequate cover, in a good way, so that everybody does, at the end of the day, the right thing.
What about a small borough or township that opposes an increased sales tax, and refuses to adopt any resolutions seeking it?
"We are asking the counties to enact the taxes, so we think it's appropriate that local governments step up and say, 'We think this is a good thing.' And that's how you become qualified. If you don't pass that, and then the County passes the tax, then you will still be taxed, but you will get none of the proceeds back to your municipality, and you'll be locked out for three years. ... I think that's fair to give the County some cover.
"This is a game changer for local government.
Who would be in favor of The Local Property Tax Relief Act as just described?
"Who would be in favor of a one percent tax?"
Apparently few hands go up except for Alan Jennings. Asked how much he could really expect to get, Callahan acknowledges he only has figures for Allentown and Bethlehem, not all 25 Lehigh County Municipalities.
"There's gonna' be some winners, and there's gonna' be some losers.
"The bottom line is the funds are going to come from somewhere to fund our operations. I think this is, while not perfect, more equitable.
"The idea is that we would potentially link ourselves to Philadelphia either formally or in a negotiated way, with a core of legislators. ... When Philadelphia went from 6 to 7, everybody outside Philly voted for it so they could say, 'I didn't vote for a tax for my constituents,' and all the Philly legislators voted against it and said, 'I didn't vote for a tax for my constituents.' So what we could do is we could get Philadelphia to vote for ours, right, everybody outside Philly could vote for theirs, ... and we get Allegheny voters to come on board with us."
Callahan Sales Tax Part 1 - 7-14-09
Callahan Sales Tax Part 2 - 7-14-2009 Callahan Sales Tax Part 3 - 7-14-2009
Callahan Sales Tax Part 4 - 7-14-2009 Callahan Sales Tax Part 5 - 7-14-2009
