Harrisburg Ordinance 13-2010

Harrisburg Ordinance 13 is up for amendment tonight before the vote on final passage. The City Council agenda does not say what the amendments will be.

Click here for details on the Ordinance.

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Update

8:25 PM

Harrisburg City Council did not vote on Ordinances 13 or 14 this evening. Council did not discuss the Ordinances or the reasons for the delay.

Prior to the announcement of the delay, I spoke in opposition to the ordinances on behalf of CARPOA and AACP. I spoke briefly of lawsuits filed in other jurisdictions resulting from public comments from city officials. City officials in Pittsburgh had stated publicly that inspection ordinances and rental licensure would serve to raise revenue for the city. Such a revenue raising purpose is illegal and those statements resulted in legal action against Pittsburgh. I pointed out similar statements made by Harrisburg officials in support of Ordinances 13 and 14 in recent weeks. (Click here for a fuller discussion of those statements.)

There was no response to my comments.

In addition to prior statements stressing the need to raise revenue from Ordinances 13 and 14, it is significant that tonight's council meeting was devoted almost exclusively to the City's financial problems. Council's final act tonight was to adopt Resolution 72-2010, which reads as follows:

A Resolution authorizing the engagement of professionals to study the advisability of authorizing the filing of a petition under either the Municipalities Financial Recovery Act (Act 47) or Chapter 9 of the bankruptcy code.