Harrisburg Council to Act 47 Plan: Get Lost

Harrisburg’s City Council has refused to approve a state oversight plan to deal with Harrisburg’s financial distress threatening the loss of any state aid and enormous repercussions from bond holders. Council members voting against the plan did not want to sell assets and were upset that the state’s plan did not include a commuter tax or local option one percent sales tax-which it was claimed would raise $37 million a year. In a city of 49,000 that is highly unlikely. Allegheny County, which is 25 times larger in terms of population, collects about $160 million per year with its one percent local tax. Obviously, the Council members who were positing the $37 million figure were contemplating a countywide tax-something the plan did not propose or would not have proposed.

As we have seen in other communities that dig themselves into financial holes, it is as predictable as night following day that local officials will look to the state or their neighboring communities to bail them out.

Legislators in the state capital have shown little patience with Harrisburg’s imprudent behavior and lack of resolve in dealing with its problem. Nor does the county seem eager to help. The question is: since this the city where the seat of state government resides, will the state appoint a city oversight group with total power to manage and direct city finances? Is there any alternative given the recalcitrance and lack of seriousness of the Council?