According to the front page of the October 2, 2018 LNP:
“LNP Media Group is joining forces with two of the state’s largest news organizations, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, to create a new investigative reporting team covering Pennsylvania state government.”
The first thing they might investigate is the paragraph inserted into the “TAX REFORM CODE OF 1971, OMIBUS AMENDMENTS, ACT OF JUL13, 2016 P. . 526, NO.84. CL.72: Session of 2016, No 2016-884”,
to wit:
“(c) Recalculation.–The department shall not recalculate the baseline of a zone designated prior to the effective date of this subsection to include the hotel occupancy tax imposed under Part V of Article II.”
You try to figure out what the above means. Clue: It is double speak, the opposite of what it appears unless read very carefully and in context.
It allows Penn Square Partners to include 80% of the hotel sales tax paid by its long existing 299 room Marriott as well as 80% of the state sales tax paid for the future 109 room Marriott Tower to be used to pay CRIZ debt service.
The purpose of CRIZ was to encourage new projects, not to give windfalls of about $4 million to long existing projects.
Let the investigatory group interview the owners of LNP and Dale High’s organization, partners in Penn Square Partners.. Then they might report to us how that mysterious gift came about.
October 2, 2018
