Who says that we don't have transparency in government?
In Pennsylvania, once again, it's shown to be all too clear who controls the purse-strings of the state. The corporations. It's only fitting that the G20 will be based in Pittsburgh this week.
Latest moronic poor budget patch?
Adding sales tax to your ballet, opera, musical, play, zoo, and museum tickets. At first glance, this doesn't seem so bad. Then, you realize who the state is leaving in exempt status - movie theaters and sporting events.
So our Pennsylvania tax dollars are subsidizing AMC Loews Theaters and Regal Entertainment Group - companies that make hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Our tax dollars are subsidizing the Heinz family and the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Flyers (yet again). Yet the state house wants to take away this subsidy for the City Theater, for Bricolage, for Quantum Theater, for the Carnegie Museums, for the Pittsburgh Zoo, for all these arts companies barely staying afloat and enriching our lives in un-measurable ways. Ridiculous.
Perhaps next, we'll have a fee on withdrawing library books? And exempt the sales tax for Barnes and Noble?
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5 comments:
how are we subsidizing the Heinz family?
the Heinz family endowments give hundreds of millions to the City of Pittsburgh and residents annually?
Plese clarify that remark...
Huddler, you are correct. I was thinking Rooney family / Heinz Field and wrote "Heinz family".
nice blog
Didn't know we were subsidizing Lowe's and the such. Do you mean the subsidies which go into developments like the Waterfront, or do you mean continuing subsidies of their operations?
By not charging sales tax on movie theater tickets, the state is allowing Loews movie theater to have higher priced tickets and make more profit, in effect subsidizing them.
Why should movie theaters be exempt from charging sales tax when real theaters aren't? Does the state really think our lives are enriched more by watching recordings than seeing live performances?
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