I Want My 52 Dollars!

Pittsburgh's new $52 occupation tax was billed as a dollar-a-week tax, but workers in the city are really getting hit with the full tax bite this month. The tax -- which the state raised from $10 to $52 annually, for the first time since 1965 -- is now called the "emergency and municipal services" tax and is supposed to help cities pay for police and fire protection, road maintenance and property tax relief. The state approved the tax increase as part of the overall budget package for Pittsburgh, which included a new payroll tax for the city, but it authorized other municipalities statewide (not including Philadelphia) to implement it, too.
So far, 22 municipalities statewide have notified the state they have adopted the new tax, though that could grow to 250-300, said Kevin Ortiz, spokesman for the Department of Community and Economic Development. Workers in the biggest city with the new tax, Pittsburgh, will be seeing smaller paychecks this month than they may have anticipated. Instead of taxing the $52 out in small batches -- a quarterly $13 deduction through the year, for example -- the city has told employers to deduct it all in January. Employers can take it from their workers in bites this month -- say, $26 in two biweekly payrolls -- but the whole $52 has to be collected during January.