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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Bill Kortz State
Rep. David Levdansky |
  
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Kortz, Levdansky vote to preserve amusement revenues for West Mifflin
HARRISBURG, June 24 – State Reps. Bill Kortz, D-Allegheny, and David Levdansky, D-Allegheny/Washington, voted against an amendment this week that would have cost the borough of West Mifflin and surrounding communities $1 million in lost revenue.
The amendment, which was considered as part of a bill that would consolidate collection of the local Earned Income Tax in Pennsylvania, failed in the House by a vote of 84 to 111. Had the amendment been adopted, it would have inserted language in the bill prohibiting the collection of an amusement tax in Pennsylvania.
The amusement tax charged for admission to Kennywood Park and other amusement and water parks in Pennsylvania provides millions of dollars a year for the municipalities that host those parks. Kennywood's annual contribution to West Mifflin, which is in Kortz's legislative district, is $1 million.
"The legislator who offered this amendment has no amusement parks in his legislative district, and no understanding of how devastating the loss of this revenue would be for communities like West Mifflin," Kortz said. "The amendment was aimed at a very narrow special interest, and was rightfully defeated."
"The amendment would have taken revenue generated by parks like Kennywood from the local municipalities where they are located," Levdansky added. "When this issue came before the House Finance Committee last year, Kennywood went on the record saying it would not cut ticket prices if it were not required to pay the tax.
"So Kennywood's customers wouldn't get a reduced ticket price and the community would see reduced revenue and be forced to raise taxes, while Kennywood, now owned by a Spanish company, would ship its profits off to a foreign country. This scenario is unacceptable, and it's for the best the amendment failed."
"West Mifflin and Kennywood just struck a deal on how the park would contribute its fair share of taxes to the community," Kortz said. "Yanking this revenue source from municipalities like West Mifflin without any evidence that the amusement tax is a burden on the industry, or has cost it attendance or profit, would not have been fair to the taxpayers of West Mifflin and other host communities in Pennsylvania.
"I'm glad my House colleagues joined Representative Levdansky and me in defeating it."
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