Outlook Good For City Cigarette Tax As Lawmakers Return
By Tony Romeo
HARRISBURG (CBS) -- Pension reform and liquor privatization are longshots, but as lawmakers return to the state capitol today to begin the final weeks of their two-year session, one thing that may get done is a cigarette tax in Philadelphia to generate badly needed cash for city schools.
Spokesmen for the House and Senate majority leaders are optimistic that the cigarette tax will be enacted this fall.
"Rep. Turzai and Superintendent Hite had [a] very good conversation," said Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, an Allegheny County Republican, "and they'd agreed that the goal is to put forth a clean bill."
A "clean bill" refers to the House version that does not include hotel taxes in certain locales and tax incentives for cities that the Senate version of the bill included and ended up bogging the legislation down.
Erik Arneson, spokesman for the Senate majority leader, Chester Republican Dominic Pileggi, says there are active discussions to resolve the dispute.
"There's no specific agreement as to the final shape of the legislation at this point," he says, "but everybody is very optimistic that it will get done [and] it will get done quickly."
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