EDITOR: Is Scranton about to go broke, and may other PA cities soon follow?
THE TIMES-TRIBUNE: Scranton City Council on Thursday introduced an ordinance that would create a 15 percent parking tax on private and nonprofit-organization parking facilities where patrons pay to park, and a $1 annual license fee per parking space, that together are expected to generate $500,000 a year for the city.
Council also said the immediate cash-flow crisis that had been threatening to cause “payless paydays” and a lapse in health care coverage has been eased by the administration’s borrowing of $1.5 million from the city’s workers’ compensation trust fund, as well as by increased collections of earned-income taxes. The inflow of cash has allowed for payroll and a $625,000 bill from Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania to be paid, they said.
Over the years, the city has used its workers’ compensation fund as a rainy-day piggy bank. In January, $5 million was borrowed from the workers’ compensation trust fund to pay a 2011 tax-anticipation note. At the same time, an $11.5 million tax-anticipation note for 2012 was borrowed to pay back the workers’ compensation fund and other bills… (more)
