Perhaps the biggest boost Swann could give to his campaign is to come out solidly in favor of a proposal coming up in the House for debate in November which would eliminate both personal and business property taxes completely. The state sales tax would be lowered from 6% to 5%, but would be expanded to cover services instead of simply being on goods. All school funding, which currently comes from property taxes would come from the revised income tax. Additionally, the portion of the Philadelphia City Wage tax (which is currently just a bit above 4.3% for residents and 3.8% for non-residents working in the city) that goes to fund the Philadelphia Public Schools would have to be eliminated. This will play really well both in the city as well as in the suburbs. The elimination of the business property tax would also be a great incentive to get businesses to move into the city again.
For those in Pa. who haven't heard of the proposal, they have a webpage at .
Philly will be tough, but he's a big hero in the 'burgh, and that may well be worth enough votes to give Swann an excellent chance.
You are wrong. Philly is 110% Dem and 10%Rep.
Republicans don't have to take Philly to win in PA. They just have to lose it by around 250,000 votes or less (Pres. Bush lost Philly by 412,000 in 2004 and lost the state by less than 150,000).
If Swann holds down Rendell's margin there, he should clean up in western PA. He's a legend out there.