None of the six Democratic candidates running for Scranton City Council supports increasing the real estate, wage, business privilege/mercantile or realty transfer taxes - or the city's trash-collection fee - as ways to raise revenue, they said during a debate Wednesday.
The candidates, including incumbent Pat Rogan, who is in his fourth year on council, Greg Evans, William Gaughan, Joseph Matyjevich, Tim Perry and Joe Wechsler, each are vying for a nomination to one of three four-year council seats available in the May 21 primary.
In a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of Lackawanna County, the candidates were asked whether they favor an increase, decrease or no change in each tax category or the trash fee. Mr. Evans and Mr. Gaughan both said that each of the tax categories should remain unchanged.
"We can't ask for a decrease when we're in the debt we are. We can't ask for an increase when our taxes are so much higher than outside areas," said Mr. Evans, adding that the longterm solution is promoting economic development. "We need to attract industry, which brings jobs. (If) we bring jobs, we bring in residents, we bring in homeowners. We increase our tax base, not our tax burden."
Mr. Gaughan said, "It's a bit delusional to say we can lower anything or raise anything, because in my opinion we really don't know the true state of the city."
He said the city needs a "five-year strategic business plan" to find out the following: "Where are we today? Where do we want to be in five years? How much does government cost today and how much will it cost in five years? We don't have real numbers. We can't make real projections in a budget."
Mr. Perry and Mr. Wechsler each support lowering the realty transfer taxes, while keeping the real estate and business privilege/mercantile taxes the same. Mr. Perry would keep the wage tax the same while Mr. Wechsler would lower it.
Mr. Perry said the city's high realty transfer tax is one reason people don't move to the city and the city needs to increase its 89 percent real estate tax collection rate.
"A lot of the city's problems will be solved once we start working on a better collection rate of fees and taxes. I believe it's that simple," Mr. Perry said. "We need to buckle down. Instead of going after people who are paying taxes all the time, we need to go after people who aren't paying them."
Mr. Wechsler said the city's high wage tax is a psychological and financial problem.
"The first thing anyone tells you about city is, 'I'll never live there because the wage tax is too high,'â" Mr. Wechsler said. "In terms of the realty transfer tax, if we lower the tax and were able to sell more homes, we'd bring in the same amount of money or more. More people living in city means more money and it will help us increase our finances."
Mr. Rogan supports decreasing the real estate, wage and realty transfer taxes, while keeping business privilege/mercantile taxes the same.
"The city of Scranton certainly cannot tax itself out of our problems. Taxes are not the answer to the problem, they are the problem," said Mr. Rogan, who proposes a tax break for first-time homebuyers. "If we could have a tax break to lure people into city of Scranton, we could expand our tax base. If they live here 10, 20, or 30 years and have a family here, that's how we grow."
Mr. Matyjevich, who favors cutting each of the taxes, also said, "I propose having a once-a-quarter, realty-transfer-tax amnesty, which would encourage people to move into city. The more people we have moving into the city, the better it will be for the neighborhoods."
He suggested possibly imposing fees for fire, accident or utility services as alternative revenues to offset tax cuts.
The candidates also addressed questions on whether they would cooperate with the next mayor or propose spending cuts, as well as to discuss the council's role in union contract negotiations and what state legislation may be needed to help the city.
There are no Republican council candidates in the GOP primary.
Contact the writer: jlockwood@timesshamrock.com, @jlockwoodTT on Twitter