To restate the obvious, arts organizations should not be the only victims of the new 8% tax on ticket sales in Philadelphia. If you haven’t heard about this brouhaHA (that’s HA for Harrisburg) here’s more at the Inquirer website.
In short, the gate for museums, dance, theatre and music performances and the zoo will all be taxed — for the first time ever — at the new 8% city tax rate (in the rest of Pennsylvania the rate is 6%). Most (though not all) of the tax revenue will go into a newly-created state arts fund; and part of the revenue will go back to the arts organizations.
The inequity of taxing the arts and not sporting events or movies is absurd beyond our imagination. Where’s the social contract where everybody shares the good and the bad. Of all things, why pick on the arts when they’re more vulnerable than many other sectors?
