The high taxes is one of the biggest reasons people give for not wanting to live in the City. Scranton has the highest tax burden in Lackawanna County by far. The wage tax (officially Earned Income Tax or EIT) on working individuals is 3.4%. That is the highest rate for any municipality in Northeast PA. Most of our neighboring towns have their wage tax set at 1%. Some townships in Pike and Wayne Counties don’t even have a wage tax. We need to give working Scranton families a break and lower the wage tax. Property taxes are also a concern for many Scranton homeowners. City Council must pass responsible and balanced budgets without continually asking the residents for more of their hard earned dollars.
The question I get asked all the time is how do we lower taxes while continuing to provide the services Scranton residents expect? Here’s my plan:
First, we need to stop relying on outside consultants for everything. In Scranton, we hire consultants and then hire consultants to consult with the consultants about their consulting. Just this summer there have been multiple Nay Aug pool studies commissioned. The city is just recently hired a firm to provide recommendations on crime prevention and is currently seeking a consultant to conduct an environmental impact report to measure green house gas emissions in the year 2050. There are many employees on the city’s payroll. This is work that should be done by city employees during work hours. The excessive use of outside consultants and other wasteful spending needs to stop.
Second, the nonprofits in the city that act like businesses need to start paying up. We all know who the large organizations that own significant amounts of property in the city that don’t have to pay taxes because they are a nonprofit are. The University of Scranton is a big asset to the area, they are also one of the largest landowners in Scranton and all that land is off the tax rolls. That university has around a $275,000,000 endowment, over a quarter of a billion dollars, but they can’t pay their fair share? The University of Scranton is probably the biggest offender, but the other universities, the healthcare systems, and the county are also large landowners in the city that are exempt from paying taxes. On city council, I promise to apply pressure on these organizations to make sure they pay their fair share.
Third is economic development. I have a full economic development plan for Scranton which you can read on this website. Economic development is critical for Scranton’s future. Businesses pay taxes too. If there are successful businesses in the city, the city will receive more tax revenue from businesses. That means we can be less reliant on the residents for tax dollars. More successful businesses also means more jobs and hopefully increasing wages, in other words, a growing tax base.
Tyler Day for Scranton City Council 