Obama At Independence Hall Tomorrow

OMGOMGOMG! Noted next president Barack Obama will meet with the nation’s governors tomorrow at Independence Hall at the annual national governor meeting. KYW 1060 says “This is not just a ceremonial photo opportunity event,” and so here’s what’s going down:

Many of the governor’s states are facing financial crises at the local level. Philadelphia is a good example of that and a dialogue with the governors is essential to get legislative support for Obama’s coming financial stimulus program, Governors want tax relief; new bridges and projects to create jobs.

Sweet! New Deal-type programs creating new bridges and tax relief. Everything I want in a president. On the plus side, does a national governor meeting mean Sarah Palin and Arnold Schwarzenegger are in town?! Ooh, now I am officially excited.

Nation’s Governors to Convene in Philadelphia [KYW 1060]

Not So Shocking News: Milton Street Owes Back Taxes

The mayor released a list of the city’s Top 50 Tax Deadbeats, and it looks like the Nelson Medical Group and the defunct law firm of Edward David, Charles Fitzpatrick and John Fitzpatrick will be meeting in the National Championship Game. Man, can’t we just have a playoff system already?

The list is actually pretty hilarious if you’re a huge nerd and easily amused. Naturally, I’m falling out of my chair at the office laughing at some of this stuff. What’s Super Shuttle Management Inc. and why does it owe 1.13 million in back taxes? Why are there so many electric companies on this list but not one water works? How did Big George’s Stop ‘N’ Dine get on their twice? What the hell is the Main Diner, Inc. a/k/a Vega Grill?

Most importantly, though, our old pal Milton Street is on the list! Neil Stein made it, too, though he’s nearly at the top and has a good chance at making it to a BCS bowl this year.

Nutter Publicizes City’s Tax Deadbeats [Clout]

New Soccer Stadium Design Already Has Chester Residents Dancing In Streets, Screaming For More

Hey, look, there’s an initial stadium design for the soccer stadium for everyone’s favorite tax-supported local sports team, the Camden Riversharks of Chester.

The stadium, set to open in 2010, will also hold “festivals” in its entranceway, apparently, bringing the total number of days it is used a year somewhere around 25. Or so.

MLS Philly 2010 Receives Initial Stadium Design from Rosetti [MLS Philly 2010]

Out-Of-State Winies, The LCB, And God

In the beginning, God created man and the ethyl alcohol molecule. Later, man discovered the ethyl alcohol molecule was psychoactive. In other words, he discovered how to get drunk.

Alcohol is officially endorsed by both God and Jesus, and as such it’s one of the most popular drugs in the world. But even though God and Jesus both love alcohol, some people thought it shouldn’t exist. So the U.S. banned alcohol and everything was fine except for the flagrant violation of the alcohol laws and the gang wars and the deaths from contaminated alcohol and (most importantly) the loss of tax revenue. America got rid of Prohibition and Pennsylvania founded the Liquor Control Board.

Officially, Pennsylvania hoped for the return of Prohibition, if only to shut down the saloons in Philadelphia (see, in some ways this Prohibition wasn’t about alcohol at all!). But soon the state did discover the value of the tax revenue of drunks, and now it restricts the sale of “wine and spirits” to state-owned stores that usually suck.

The most-famous alcohol tax in Pennsylvania is the Johnstown Flood Tax, originally levied at 10 percent to help the Western Pa. town recover from a 1936 flood. Now the money goes to the general fund. As you might have guessed, the rate is now 18 percent, having been raised for reasons not related to flooding in Johnstown.

Yes, the state loves alcohol revenue. It gets better: The state once banned out-of-state wineries from shipping directly to consumers in Pennsylvania, because that makes sense. But a bunch of court rulings eventually made that law unconstitutional, so now somehow the state is going to make a new law that will do the same thing and (I guess, you never know) be constitutional.

All of this is being done to “protect the children,” because allowing wineries to ship alcohol to Pennsylvania residents would make it easier for kids to get booze. They, apparently, do not have access to it now.

For more information, consult your local anti-Pennsylvania LCB bloq.

Pa. Lawmakers May Restrict Wine Shipments [AP/NBC 10]
Photo by RobotSkirts, Creative Commons license

Headline Of The Day

Yes, yes. I know.

$52 tax will be split four ways [The Intelligencer]

Milton On Trial: It Begins Today!

It’s an Ash Wednesday miracle! Jury selection begins today in the trial of New Jersey’s Milton Street, with opening arguments expected as early as this afternoon.

Milton is not charged with impersonating a public figure or making up a story that all the people attending his rally were shot and couldn’t make it. He’s accused of using the influence of his brother to get money for doing nothing. Then, to top it off, he allegedly didn’t pay any taxes on it.

Milton said last year the charges against him were political (or, rather, “politics”) while discussing these charges and the city’s attempt to get back taxes from him: “I’m saying to you that the city solicitor has an invested interest in this election. And his interest is that I don’t get elected. And he came out with these false allegations…. The government will never in a thousand years prove that I had two million dollars. They’ll never prove that. Never, never, never, never, never, never, never!”

The two people who lost to Milton Street in the City Council primary last May remain in hiding.

Milton Street Set to Go to Trial on Fraud and Tax Charges [KYW 1060]
Milton Street Blasts City’s Tax Case Against Him [KYW 1060]

Ed Rendell: Cheat On Your Taxes

Ed Rendell was on a radio show out in Pittsburgh when the matter of Allegheny County’s new liquor by the drink tax came up. Apparently, we have this in Philadelphia, too, but Rendell told everyone not to worry because it just won’t be collected anyway.

(Rendell): “We don’t quite enforce in the neighborhood taverns as well as we do in the big hotels and restaurants.”

(Host): “You look the other way, sir?”
(Rendell): “Umm, you can say that.”

Everyone had a good laugh about the governor’s plan to let people cheat on their taxes out in Pittsburgh, except for the Nutter administration, which had to remind people not to cheat. The governor apparently meant that they just go after the delinquent hotels and restaurants first, because they have larger tax bills.

In other news, people didn’t know how to cheat on their taxes until the governor told them to, so Pennsylvania is full of morons. Maybe if we all cheat on our state taxes enough they’ll reduce the size of the legislature!

Rendell Tweaks Remarks About City’s Drink Tax [KYW 1060]

Mayor Can’t Keep Track of All His Wheelings & Dealings

Hey, so remember when John Street tried to get in property tax delinquents? And then he accidentally — whoops! — was delinquent on property taxes himself? Well, how’d that happen?

Good luck getting an answer from the mayor, he has no idea!

At issue are tax bills for two of Mayor Street’s properties that had not been paid since 2003. Street paid the nearly $5,000 bill only after being told of the matter by a reporter last week. In his first public comments on this, Street said there’s confusion over the bills, and said he won’t try to straighten it out in the media:

“That’s personal, and I’m not going to get into how I pay my bills. Legitimate taxes weren’t paid on time, and when I found out, I paid them. And I think that’s good enough.”

Street also overpaid on some other bills, but he’s a millionaire so it doesn’t really matter. Ha ha, John Street is a millionaire! What are you going to tell me next, state legislators make six figures? Oh, shit.

Mayor Mum About Why He Failed To Pay Property Taxes [KYW 1060]

Brett Mandel Wants Us To Throw Our Taxes In River

The city recently reassessed properties, therefore raising property taxes. In what will be a shock to no one who gets emails from him, Philadelphia Forward’s Brett Mandel wants us to revolt! KYW 1060’s Mike Dunn reports:

Shades of the Boston Tea Party: activists in Philadelphia are calling for a massive taxpayer revolt against sweeping property tax reassessments. [...] “Everyone should appeal, because the BRT can’t substantiate that being people are being taxed uniformly. So until they fix the system, they shouldn’t be increasing anyone’s taxes.”

He wants all the 400,000 owners with reassessed properties to all file appeals so the city is buried in so much paperwork it can’t do anything. Which, admittedly, would kinda be awesome. What if City Hall was covered in paper all the way up to the scaffolding-covered William Penn? Oh, man, that would even be cooler than the gingerbread house-style City Hall during Christmas.

Also, yes, this is a lot like the Boston Tea Party. Can we dress up as Indians while we file our appeals?

Philadelphians Urged To Appeal Tax Reassessments [KYW 1060]

Milton Street Owes Money To Everybody

Milton Street’s City Council at-large campaign isn’t drawing too much attention. Maybe people know he can’t top singing on top of a coffin or maybe he’s just being held down by the man. (Fight for Room 215 reports he was turned away from a debate on Saturday.)

So how’s a former elected official already slated to go on trial in October — it was pushed back from the day before the primary — for corruption and tax charges get some media attention? Simple, of course: Have the city go after Uncle Milt for owing almost 400 grand in taxes.

A recent review by the city’s revenue department showed Milton owes $392,573 in taxes. It’s based on the federal indictment the government handed down in November, which charged him with failing to report $2 million in taxable income.

Milton, of course, is defensive:

“It’s totally absurd, because, number one, I’ve never earned that much money,” Street said. “I’m not getting into the airport stuff because it’s the subject of a federal investigation. But if the city is trying to protect its own ass based on figures they can’t substantiate, that’s up to them.”

“I don’t want to get into the federal charges because I am going to deal with that after the election,” Street told the Daily News last week. “But I will tell you, what goes into the wash will come out in the rinse. That’s when the facts will come out.”

Stay strong, Milt. Only a few more days ’til you’re City Councilman-elect Milton Street.

City going after Milton for 392G in taxes [Daily News]
Poor Milton [Fight for Room 215]