Dear Philadelphia
Get stuffed
For the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated MS Philly Organic, a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home. Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.
In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.
“The real kick in the pants is that I don’t even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous,” Bess says.
It seems to me there are clear Constitutional issues here in addition to the usual “how rapacious for our money is our government” bit, as well.
Philly needs to clean house in November.
(h/t Washington Examiner)
Biz, Nanny State, Politics | Mr. Bingley | 
August 23, 2010 6:45 am
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That’ll larn them not to ad
It $11 in income.
Admit. iPhone changed it to ad it.
It’s Obamanomics: make $11, get a tax bill for $300.
I hope the IRS doesn’t stumble across her admitting the $50 windfall. Could get a LOT worse…
The City of Philadelphia is now more out of control than ever. They’re doing stuff like this constantly now.
They’re going after the former director of the Free Library after the library board, totally transparently and on the up-and-up, elected to give him bonuses to compensate for the fact that he was getting zero in raises year after year. The city has no right to ask for that money. It’s as if the slightest whiff of anyone managing to stay afloat sets them off and they’re gonna lay claim to it, right or wrong. Usually wrong.
I’m outside the city and it just baffles me why city voters keep reelecting these dogs and/or their reasonable facsimilies every year.
Philly has been a wasteland for a couple decades at least. There are only two places I’ve been to where I’ve been shot at or near. Iraq and Philadelphia. Both places need a political enema.
Wow, that sounds bad. Please tell me it was like West Oak Lane or something like that.