As I understand it the wage tax was sort of a punishment/band aid for white flight in the 70's and 80's, when companies workers started moving to the suburbs but working in the city, right? The resulting backfire - new business completely moving out of the city - apparently didn't drive much of a point home. I guess it does put money in the bank - at the expense of completely alienating the tax base...

So much of government in Philly is entrenched in a very defeatist / corrupt attitude that hangs like a dark cloud over everything. Honestly sometimes I think what Philly really needs is to have some fresh thinking imported from outside the city.