Friday, September 25, 2009
Rendell urged to scrap arts-tax plan
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Pittsburgh and Philadelphia cultural groups on Wednesday met with Gov. Ed Rendell and legislative leaders of both parties to convince them to drop a budget proposal that would levy the state sales tax on music, dance, theater and museum admissions."
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3 comments:
I cannot even begin to understand why Rendell even thought that taxing the arts was a lucrative decision. It makes sense that Pennsylvania want to continuing to keep the neccesitie item tax free so obviously a luxerly like the arts seems like a viable option. However, are they so far removed from the middle to lower class that they do not realize the arts is already suffering because of their astronomical prices? Even if someone does find a reasonable priced admission to the arts they still can have almost up to $20 worth of hidden fees, such as processing and ticket fee. What would happen to audience attendence if the government stuck their fingers in? They don't want to fund it but they have no problem using it to their advantage. Typical.
To be honest, I am actually in support of this plan. Though I do not like paying more for my theater tickets, the arts are a luxury compared to food and clothing. We must remember that while this is not good for our industry, the good of PA must be looked after. All variable tax revenues are down because of the stagnate state of our economy. If this is how the state is reacting, than that is what we will have to deal with.
I totally understand why the PA government would want to put a tax on the arts... because people support the arts and they can make money off of it. But what they need to remember is that rising ticket prices due to taxes is not going to help draw people to theatres, museums, or other arts places. In fact, it will probably have the opposite effect. Rendell needs to think twice before he signs anything.
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