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Pittsburgh City Councilman William Peduto suggested this week that the city push the Legislature to adopt a ¹/₂ percent tax on commuters and abolish a $10 occupational tax. This proposed tax on those who work in the city but live elsewhere "is the equivalent of the Philadelphia wage tax," Staiger, 34, said at the park-and-ride lot in Marshall. "I worked in Philadelphia as an attorney until I moved here a year ago. When I left Philadelphia, I was paying $3,500 a year in (commuter) taxes. I don't want that to happen again."

Most suburban commuters interviewed Tuesday and Wednesday were overwhelmingly opposed to the proposed one-half percent income tax that would replace the $10-a-year occupation tax.

Officials of Pittsburgh City Schools, which would be asked to give up a fourth of its 2 percent wage tax to allow the imposition of the commuter tax, would be willing to help the city if it doesn't hurt schools. Business representatives said it's too early to gauge the effect of the proposed tax on hiring or retaining employees.

The commuter tax would affect more than 173,000 people who live outside the city but work in it. Someone with a $50,000 salary would pay a $250 annual commuter tax.

Staiger, a tax attorney at the Downtown firm Meyer, Unkovic & Scott, said city officials should take a long look at what the 3.9 percent commuter tax has done in Philadelphia.

"I understand the need for such a tax — commuters get the benefit of the fire department, the roads. But I don't think a wage tax is the solution," Staiger said. "I think Pittsburgh could end up shooting themselves in the foot with such a tax."

Sam Nuthalapaty of Monroeville, an information technician who works Downtown, said the prospect of paying more taxes is forcing him to consider leaving the region.

"I'll probably move out of the area," he said. "I already feel that I pay a lot of taxes here, compared to Wisconsin. The tax rate is so much higher here in Pennsylvania overall, so a half-percent tax seems to be excessive."

Some commuters said the recent increase in Port Authority fares is like a commuter tax.

In June, the Port Authority approved a $276.6 million budget that raised cash fares by 9 percent and prepaid fares by about 25 percent to cover a $9 million deficit. Also, the authority cut bus service by 4.5 percent.

Dan Basso of North Strabane said Downtown is gorgeous and his commute is convenient, but a commuter tax would be one more detriment to working in the city, along with traffic snarls, eternal road construction and parking costs.

"If it wasn't for us, who'd be working in the city?" he said.

Not everyone is opposed to increasing what commuters pay to the city.

West View resident Henry Thorne, who owns Aethon, a North Side business that specializes in machines for hospitals, supports a commuter tax, but said he prefers a flat levy of no more than $100 a year.

"I think that's a fair amount to pay for the benefits I receive from the city," Thorne said. A minimal tax would not run businesses out of the city, he said. "I want to be in the city. There's an excitement in the city — with the people and the skyline. It's an invigorating place to work, and I believe a business should be in an invigorating place."

Brian Gallagher, who lives in Cranberry and commutes to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy on Fourth Avenue, agreed. He said he believes the tax, as a short-term solution, is "not the end of the world."

"My only serious concern is that they would consider it such a successful, reliable source of new revenue that they will decide to make it permanent," he said. "Then you would see the brain drain accelerate even further, as people would just opt to relocate to a different city rather than move from the suburbs to the city to avoid the tax."

Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey, a Republican, said the proposed tax could help attract businesses to Washington County, home to Southpointe, a successful industrial park off Interstate 79 in Cecil Township. Several other business parks are in the works in the county.

"It could help us from a business standpoint," she said.

Findlay Supervisor Raymond Chappell agreed.

"This could cause a lot of people to leave the area," Chappell said. "A commuter tax would ultimately hurt people that are just trying to make a living right now."

Staff writers Ashley Gerwig and Vince Guerrieri also contributed to this report.

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