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No Commuter Tax, What’s The Cost?

SCRANTON — The first step in the mayor of Scranton’s plan to fix the city’s finances failed when a tax on commuters was struck down by a judge...

SCRANTON -- The first step in the mayor of Scranton's plan to fix the city's finances failed when a tax on commuters was struck down by a judge Tuesday.

That leaves the mayor with a tough predicament: finding a new way to fill a $15 million hole in Scranton's pension fund.

Mayor Bill Courtright's plan involved using a specific state law to tax commuters to make up for the deficit in the pension fund, but that part of the plan backfired with the court decision.

We asked the mayor what his plan is now. He didn't say specifically if it would mean additional tax hikes for city residents, but residents hope the cost doesn't fall on them now.

The first of Scranton's financial problems to tackle is getting the pension funds for all four city unions out of the red.

Mayor Courtright's original plan failed when a judge struck down an already approved commuter tax. Now, the mayor has to come up with another way to make up a $15 million deficit.

"Severe implications, I think you saw where they said there was two and a half years left on the fire pension, maybe four to five years left on the police pension. So, it's an emergency, we are in emergency mode here. We've got to get it fixed," said Mayor Courtright.

The mayor says city officials may find another way to place a wage tax on commuters or appeal the judge's decision to strike down the city's most recent attempt.

"There's other options out there. We knew from day one that even this option wasn't something that everybody wanted. We knew there was going to be pain. We're trying to spread it as evenly as possible. We're going to look at what other options are out there."

The mayor wouldn't say if any of those options include levying any other taxes on city residents.

Earlier this week, Scranton's solicitor told Newswatch 16 that the mayor's cabinet does not support passing a wage tax hike onto city residents since they already pay 3.4 percent of their annual income, one of the highest wage taxes in the state.

"I already pay enough of my income every year. The city takes more than the state," Luke Anto.

"Any kind of tax right now is going to hurt. It's really going to hurt everybody I think, especially the businesses down here," said Scranton resident Jim McNally.

Mayor Courtright told us the city pension funds are only years away from running out of money. The city is obligated by law to pay pensions.

The mayor also told us that he has been in discussions with union leaders about the state of the pension funds but wouldn't tell us what was discussed.

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