Leftovers: Bianca Ryan Well On Way To Catching Tupac

• Jonathan Takiff checks in with America’s Got Talent winner Bianca Ryan today and finds her hard at work on her second album. Wait, how many albums did Janis Joplin record when she was alive? [Daily News]

• Live in Pennsylvania? All your road taxes are going up. And think, this report on transit was released just after the election. Who knew? [AP/6 ABC]

• Some voting machines in Bucks County and Montco featured a “No Vote” button, showing that you were all into the civic process, but all of the candidates running had the governing ability of a snail. Hey, can we get these for Philadelphia? [KYW 1060]

• Cherry Hill lands a deadly blow in the Cherry Hill vs. Smut war. Money quote: “They tear down the moral and spiritual fiber of America and should be banned.” [Camden Courier-Post]

Philly: A City That Can’t Even Fix Its Most Famous Bell

Julia Vitullo-Martin can’t just stop bashing Philly. The Manhattan Institute fellow who wrote a strange piece in the Wall Street Journal about how Boston is better than Philadelphia recently continued her screed against the city in an email newsletter from the Manhattan Institute. (If you’re one of the Philadelphians who hasn’t heard of the Manhattan Institute except when it’s talking about Boston or Philadelphia, raise your hand. Thank you.)

In it, she picks up on the designation of America’s Next Great City bestowed upon our 135-square miles by National Geographic Traveler. (Way to get that one while it’s still hot.) She also writes about how the murder rate is high. And then she goes in this direction:

As Captain Jesse G of South Philly’s Italian Market said recently while selling crabs, “This place was 95 percent Italian. Then the entire neighborhood moved en bloc across the river to Washington Township, New Jersey. People. Businesses. Everything. Now it’s 5 percent Italian.” Vacant property, perhaps waiting for development, mars the local cityscape. Down the block from Captain Jesse, a dilapidated former market stall carries a for-sale sign. Across the street, a huge Chinese restaurant has opened, signaling at least one ethnic group ready to bring new capital to the neighborhood. Right behind a sign announcing The Italian Market, a small Vietnamese restaurant does a good business, attracting customers from the Korean and Vietnamese shopping centers.

The townhouses are in part a product of the 10-year abatement of real estate taxes on any improvement—a program former Mayor Rendell started to jumpstart development. … The city’s bet—and it may pay off—is that the tax breaks will attract so many new residents and businesses that by the time the abatements expire, the value of the property will have increased sufficiently to placate property owners about the steep taxes they will have to pay. But what about current property owners, who now shoulder the entire tax burden? “Last year the city of Philadelphia raised real estate taxes for the building in which I live, while granting abatements to many new or to-be buildings,” says business consultant Arthur Cohen, who lives in rural Pennsylvania while maintaining a condo in Philadelphia. “This tends to lower the market value of our building, and of course asks us to pay more than our share of the city’s burden. The city of Philadelphia has become a desirable place to live and developers can make money without the abatement, which is a give-away.”

If you were too busy to read that, here’s the problems with Philadelphia, aside from the post-war population decrease: The Italian Market has Asian businesses, and business consultants with a house in rural Pennsylvania are paying more taxes on their second house (a condo) in Philly.

Gasp! This is a problem. Perhaps the Manhattan Institute can import some Boston politicians for us to fix this mess. Hey, we already have a toilet from Beantown.

Will Philly Be The Next Great City? [Manhattan Institute]
Oct. 31: Erie Canal Takes Center Stage In Boston-Philly Debate
Nov. 2: Flushing Philly’s Troubles Away

NJ’s Upper Class To Lose 7 Cents On The Dollar

As part of a budget compromise over the summer, several things that weren’t taxed previously were going to be assessed at the seven-percent rate. That finally goes into effect on October 1.

And what are these things? Digital downloads (good luck with that one, guys), tattoos, massages, and…

On Sunday, New Jersey’s 7% sales tax is being extended to items that were previously exempt, including country club memberships and health club dues.

Oh no, country club memberships! The horror, the horror.

NJ Sales Tax to be Extended to More Items [KYW 1060]

Protesters Don’t Want Taxes To Pay For Death

The Inquirer brings the story today of two South Jersey men who are in jail for failing to pay their taxes. Kevin McKee and Joseph Donato are members of a small religious group called Restored Israel of Yahweh that is opposed to war and opposed to paying taxes into the military-industrial complex.

Usually tax evaders are simply taken to civil court, but since the Restored Israel of Yahweh isn’t a big religious group like, say, the Quakers — which sometimes have members that refuse to pay taxes — so they’re serving about two years in prison each.

Donato’s wife also went to prison, but not in the minimum security ones that McKee and her husband are in. She was in the Federal Detention Center in Philly (probably with Lil’ Kim!) and said she adapted in her own way:

“Everyone sizes one another up for about a month or so. I fell back, almost, to high school,” she said. “I didn’t have an attitude. I didn’t act like ‘I’m here, but I really shouldn’t be here.’ “

Prison? A lot like high school. I hope if I ever end up there I can make the basketball team.

Hard time for S. Jersey tax protesters [Inquirer]

It’s A Gas On Taxes

Here’s a pair of headlines, conveniently right on top of each other, on the front page of Philly.com yesterday:

The moral of the story? Raise gas prices to three or four bucks a gallon if you want, but if you make people pay an extra penny in taxes for every dollar they spend, they’ll fight you to the death.

Wheels just keep rolling despite high cost of gas [Inquirer]
Already fed up with the 7% tax [Inquirer]

Quickies: Sixers Reach .750 Winning Percentage… Against Knicks

• The 76ers beat the Knicks for the second straight game, this time by 19 points. In order to win back fans, the Sixers have started a new marketing slogan: “The 76ers: If we only played the Knicks every game, we’d have 50 wins!” [Daily News]

• You lose, Philly. Macedonia has 95 percent of its terrain wireless, unless this is an April Fool’s Day prank and I didn’t notice. And the kids have free Internet access. In Macedonia. And Philly is just going to be one big Earthlink network. I see. [Financial Times via Blinq]

• New York City has joined Pennsylvania in tax-free shopping on clothes, except theirs has a provision that it’s only when it’s $110 or less. We Pennsylvanians can buy Diesel jeans without having to pay tax muah ha ha ha! Or maybe we do. I’ve never bought a non-used pair. (Ew.) [Gawker]

• A cargo plane crashed at Dover Air Force base, and it’s omigod-like-effing-sawed-in-half but it appears nobody was seriously hurt. Some good news to end this dreary — weather-wise — morning. [AP/Philly.com]

Street slaps dead man in face (and it’s not Ron White)

Before he died, longtime city councilman David Cohen authored a bill that will give the working poor a wage tax cut. John Street (at left, apparently at a prom) vetoed the bill, saying it was a good idea but cost too much — $47 million. City Council said, “Screw you, Mr. Mayor,” and overrode his veto.

End of story, it seemed, until Cohen’s death gave John Street the best idea he’s had since he tried to get that retarded kid who works at the Franklin Mills movies fired: Hey, let’s speak at the man’s funeral and then go home and then try to repeal his tax cut.

Or at least that’s how some see it: “You go to the man’s funeral, speak a bunch of platitudes about how he helped the poor and in your next budget you want to reject his crowning legislative achievement. How cold is that?” Councilman James Kenney told the Daily News. “This is a personal dismantling of a colleague’s legacy, and it’s smacking David Cohen in the grave.”

Me-ow. You go, James Kenney. But, really, is anyone really all that surprised? It’s politics as usual in this city.

Street’s proposal to kill tax cut for poor called ‘cold,’ angers Council [DN]

Philadelphia: The place that scratches your back

Thursday, there’s a big ol’ vote in City Council on a bill sponsored by Michael Nutter. The bill would eventually eliminated the business-privilege tax, which brings in $350 million in revenues to the city each year, but also might drive business out of the city.

People in favor of eliminating the BPT include the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce.

Why does all of this matter? Well, City Councilman Wilson Goode gave Young Philly Politics a scan of a check for $1,000 given to him by the Chamber of Commerce on Dec. 1. (Goode says he’s not going to deposit it.)

The check in question:

So, basically, the Chamber (which supports Nutter’s bill) gives out $1K checks a few days before the vote on Nutter’s bill. Hmm.

I really don’t think you can buy this kind of entertainment from the private sector. But it really seems like you can buy some politicians. Which, you know, might be the American way. All in all, everybody wins! Or, you know, loses.

Editor’s Note: Yeah. I did this whole post just because I came up with a headline I thought was good. So what?

How business is done [Young Philly Politics]