Business Privilege Tax reform passes City Council

City Council chambers. Photo by Albert Yee.

The tax reform legislation that promises relief for small businesses and businesses that do sales outside of Philadelphia has been passed by City Council.

Introduced by Councilpersons Bill Green and Maria Quiñones Sánchez, the Business Privilege Tax reform was passed unanimously today, after making its way last week through the council’s Committee on Finance.

From the press release:

“For three years, we have been working to further the goals of tax fairness; leveling the playing field for local businesses, including manufacturers; small business tax relief; and generating economic growth by removing some tax-related disincentives to locating and expanding a business in the City,” Councilwoman Sánchez explained.

Councilman Green continued: “City Council is sending a clear message that the City of Philadelphia is open for business. This legislation levels the playing field for businesses that sell goods. It is a large first step in the right direction. This bill will save existing jobs and create new jobs.”

Some of our previous coverage of the tax issue and the proposed legislation:

• Maria Quiñones Sanchez: Q&A with councilwoman on tax reform, digital divide and redistricting [VIDEO]
• Councilman Jim Kenney on tax policy amid a recession
• ‘Blogger tax:’ bill creating business privilege license exemption for ‘hobbies’ faces City Council vote [VIDEO]
• Nutter to Chamber: experiment with city biz taxes, retain tech firms
• David L. Cohen, Comcast Executive Vice President, talks Comcast, taxes and startups
• How do we retain technology startups in Philadelphia? [VIDEO]
• How to open a business in the City of Philadelphia, or 15 reasons people move to the suburbs
• Megan Wendell: “I felt that Philadelphia taxes were significantly holding back” our business

Green’s Chief of Staff Sophie Bryan tells Technically Philly that she’s “absolutely confident” that Mayor Nutter will sign the bill. The Nutter administration was a close partner in the bill’s working group. The Chamber of Commerce, an opponent of early versions on the bill, said it was ‘thrilled,’ in a report posted on its website.

After the jump, details of the bill from the release.

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Philly business privilege tax reform legislation working group: discussing ‘contours of a proposal’ in March

Councilman Bill Green, with Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez to the left. Photo courtesy WHYY.

A joint Philadelphia City Council and Nutter administration working group is examining details on business privilege tax reform, says City Councilman Bill Green.

“[We are working] to achieve the underlying policy goals of the BPT reform legislation, which includ[es] helping small businesses, encouraging job creation, closing tax loopholes and making Philadelphia an attractive location for businesses to locate, expand, and stay,” Green tells Technically Philly.

The working group is charged with taking elements of City Council Bill 100635, primarily sponsored by Green and City Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez, and creating a new version more palatable to a big business community that labeled the legislation ‘ill-timed’ in recent council testimony.

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Startup Roundup: Wharton restructures MBA program, news orgs get schooled by local

Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup parses out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated newsletter or RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

MUST READS

The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that Monetate has raised $5 million in venture capital to increase its staff from 30 to 50 employees with the help of First Round Capital.

Wharton faculty have approved a new design for its MBA program, which focuses on strengthened teaching of microeconomics, an integrated focus on ethical and legal responsibilities, more oral and written communication concentration and a new tack on self-reflection and self-analysis. Read the full announcement. In related news, Forbes covers the success sreak of marketing professor Leonard Lodish, who was an early investor in Diapers.com and Milo.com, which combined, exited for roughly $575 million. Lodish is currently working with DreamIt grad NoteHall and Philly’s First Flavor.

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Mayor Nutter on government transparency, city CTO and business retention

Copyright City of Philadelphia. Photograph by Mitchell Leff.

Since we launched a year-and-a-half ago, we’ve not only watched, but followed as closely as we could City of Philadelphia technology policy.

Even in our short tenure covering all that is involved — like municipal information technology, government transparency, citywide broadband network infrastructure, economic policy and much, much more — we’ve been witness to a city intent on finding new ways of utilizing technology and finding better ways of connecting with citizens.

Throughout, we’ve heard repeatedly from leaders that Mayor Michael Nutter understands the value of technology in city government and he is intent on involving Philadelphia’s technology community.

Though we write about these initiatives weekly, nothing was more of a reminder of the Mayor’s commitment to technology than when Nutter announced a $120 million capital investment in the Division of Technology during the pageantry of his budget address to City Council in March.

And with his support, DOT has been steered in a new direction, a Chief Technology Officer appointed to the mayoral cabinet, pilot programs created to attract technology businesses and broadband stimulus dollars and gigabit broadband chased.

So, we had to get the man on the phone to talk tech. Yesterday, we spoke with Mayor Nutter about government transparency, Philadelphia’s tax structure, and about his call to action to Philadelphia’s technology community. Our Q&A with Philadelphia’s Mayor after the jump.

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