Money matters

• The Inquirer picks up a theme from Vern Anastasio's Monday opinion piece (see here) about whether tax abatements may have outlived their usefulness to the city. Philadelphia City Councilman Darrell Clarke has called for hearings on the matter, which may be held early next year.
  
  
• The PA state Senate appears to have reached agreement on a tax-cut measure which would leave to voters the Solomonian choice between property taxes and other local levies. However, the House, after its marathon simultaneous debate on 20+ proposed approaches, appears to have a different set of solutions in mind, using gambling revenues and state sales tax hikes to offset a property tax cut.
  
  
• Speaking of the House marathon session (see prev. here), John Baer was very unimpressed at the seriousness that legislators brought to the proceedings, citing everything from converstions to solitaire games during the "discussion." Even with election-year pressure to Get Something Done, it didn't look like much was happening...
  
  
• On the pay-hike front, another seven judges have brought suit against the roll-back. Perhaps they want to give the pioneers in that effort a little cover...
  
  
• The Inquirer has an editorial on the practice of payday lending, in which short-term loans are made to hard-up customers at exorbitant rates. They support Fumo's call to ban the practice, and say that the government could spend its efforts promoting financial literacy.
  
  
• And finally, the Daily News has an opinion piece making a liberal argument for a business tax cut. An interesting line of argument, although it still presumes a set of cause & effect linkages that haven't been convincingly shown...