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BETHLEHEM (Feb 9)
–
State Senator Lisa M. Boscola never
liked the occupational privilege tax
when it was a $10 “nuisance tax.”
Now that local municipalities have
increased the OPT to $52, Boscola
likes it even less—and wants to
repeal it as soon as possible.
This week, she introduced
legislation in the State Senate to
do just that. Her bill would reduce
the Emergency and Municipal Services
(EMS) Tax (formally known as the
Occupational Privilege Tax) from $52
back down to $10.
“Last year, the State Legislature
turned a $10 nuisance tax into a big
pain in people’s paychecks,” Boscola
said. “It’s wrong to punish people
who work hard every day. Workers
already have too many taxes taken
out of their paycheck. Pretty soon
there won’t be any take home pay
left to take home.”
What started out as a
proposal to bail Pittsburgh out of
bankruptcy turned into a windfall of
tax revenues for municipalities all
across the Commonwealth who couldn’t
wait to raise the OPT to $52, she
said.
Boscola voted against the measure
last year and said that if just two
other Senators had also voted
against it, the bill wouldn’t have
passed.
“You don’t raise taxes
on working people who are only
making minimum wage,” Boscola said.
“I just received a letter from a
high-school student who is working
two part-time jobs to save money so
she can pay for college. She
recently received a paycheck for
$0! That’s because they took the
$52 occupational privilege tax—and
other taxes—out of her gross
earnings and that left her with
nothing to take home!”
Last November, lawmakers passed a
bill to allow — not to force — local
municipalities to raise the
“occupational privilege tax,” if
needed, from $10 to a maximum of
$52. Local officials, according to
Boscola, quickly decided that the
new tax “needed” to be set at $52
because that would generate the most
new revenue.
“When this tax increase passed last
year, a lot of my colleagues brushed
it off and said it was only a couple
of dollars,” Boscola said. “But, I
know that a couple of dollars here
and a couple of dollars there add up
real fast. Before you know it, your
paycheck is a couple of dollars
short every week and you can’t pay
your other bills.”
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