Council bill offers tax breaks to foodmakers
After two commercial bakeries recently moved out of Philadelphia, a member of City Council wants to entice new food manufacturers to town with a tax break.
After two commercial bakeries recently moved out of Philadelphia, a member of City Council wants to entice new food manufacturers to town with a tax break.
Councilman Bobby Henon on Thursday introduced a bill that would give new bakeries or other food manufacturers a 10-year abatement of the city's use and occupancy (U&O) tax on businesses.
"We're just tired of people leaving," Henon said. "We want people to come to the city of Philadelphia."
About 550 bakery workers in Philadelphia recently lost their jobs.
Amoroso's Baking Co. closed its longtime Southwest Philadelphia facility last fall with plans to open a new facility in Bellmawr in a joint venture with another bakery. About 200 employees were laid off. In June, Mondelez, makers of products that include Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers, closed its bakery on Roosevelt Boulevard, leading to the loss of 350 jobs. The company has been shifting production to a plant in Mexico.
Henon said the exemption would not be available to current bakeries. The benefit of the exemption would vary by size but, for example, Amoroso's and Mondelez paid about $125,000 in U&O taxes combined, according to Henon's office.
Also Thursday, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown introduced a bill that would require dry cleaners to charge female and male customers equally, after a CBS3 investigation showed that often is not the case. The investigation showed a female producer being charged at least twice as much as a male producer in more than half of dry-cleaning locations they visited.
The legislation would require dry cleaners to post a price list for each article of clothing as well as factors that would cause the price to be higher. It would prohibit dry cleaners from charging different prices based on sex.
"Over the course of a woman's life, she will pay thousands of dollars more than her male peers for the same goods and services," Reynolds Brown said in a statement. "This fact is totally unacceptable and a reality Philadelphians should no longer tolerate."
New York City and Miami-Dade County have passed laws that ban price discrimination by dry cleaners.
Companies that violate the rules could be fined $50 for the first offense and $500 for each following.
Council also passed legislation, introduced by Council President Darrell L. Clarke, that seeks to improve diversity on city-funded job sites. The legislation would charge the office that tracks workers' wages on job sites with tracking diversity as well. Contractors that do not try to reach diversity goals could be barred from future city work.
215-854-2730 @TriciaNadolny