‘We’re going to work at the speed of business’: Mayor Cherelle Parker launches PHL PRIME to help firms navigate Philly’s red tape

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker on Wednesday unveiled PHL PRIME, a new service in Philadelphia that has nothing to do with Amazon — although the e-commerce giant could potentially sign up for it.

At her annual address to the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, Parker signed an executive order to establish PHL PRIME, which stands for Project Review and Infrastructure Made Easy. The new program is designed to draw “high-impact economic development projects that generate quality jobs” by helping businesses that are considering investing in Philadelphia to navigate city rules and regulations, according to the mayor’s office.

“I‘m the mayor, and I’m not absolving myself of the responsibility of making sure that bureaucracy is working effectively and efficiently,” Parker said during her annual speech at the Convention Center. “We’re not going to burden business with the ‘time tax.’ We’re going to work at the speed of business.”

Parker told reporters the new program will not involve hiring any new staff. Instead, it’s meant to bring various city departments together into a “PHL PRIME Tiger Team“ to coordinate a streamlined approach and lay out the welcome mat for investment.

In her wide-ranging speech, Parker also said the city was committed to helping major development plans from the Market East corridor and the South Philadelphia Stadium Complex to the port and shipyard.

But Parker did not speak at length about two measures she included in last year’s city budget deal that some have said shows the city is not as welcoming to business as it could be. Both relate to the city’s business income and receipts tax, or BIRT.

» READ MORE: Why Mayor Cherelle Parker is asking Council to approve a tax cut that will take effect in 2038

Parker on Wednesday briefly mentioned a law she and City Council adopted last year that bakes in annual incremental cuts to the two BIRT tax rates over 13 years. And she thanked the Tax Reform Commission for guidance on making the city’s tax structure more business-friendly.

“I am proud to affirm that we proposed and codified into law $210 million in tax investments to provide the kind of predictability that the business community told us that it needs,” Parker said. “I hope that was a direct sign to each of you in this room that the executive and the legislative branches are listening.”

But she did not mention that the enacted tax cuts — the steepest of which will likely take effect after she leaves office — are far less aggressive than the commission’s recommendations, which called for completely eliminating BIRT within eight to 12 years.

Parker also did not address the elimination of an important tax break that allowed businesses to exempt their first $100,000 in revenue when calculating their BIRT liabilities. That policy — which lasted about a decade before Council approved a Parker bill to end it last year — effectively eliminated BIRT for the tens of thousands of businesses that take in less than $100,000 per year from commerce in the city.

» READ MORE: What small business owners need to know about the major changes coming to Philly’s tax code

Parker has said she supports the exemption but was forced to get rid of it after the city was sued by Massachusetts-based Zoll Medical Corp., which does business in Philadelphia and argued that the tax break violated the Pennsylvania Constitution.

Philly’s smallest businesses are now scrambling to comply with the rule change. Tax bills are due April 15.