Hundreds of people assembled at Mother Bethel AME Church for POWER Interfaith’s Philadelphia Affordability Summit on Feb. 1, including members from 16 congregations in the Northwest.

The event featured Philadelphians discussing the issue of affordability in the city. City Councilmembers Nicolas O’Rourke and Isaiah Thomas attended and joined the conversation, and took questions from the crowd.

Much of the public testimony and dialogue centered on affordability and concerns over revenue cuts at each level of government, including the Business Income & Receipts Tax (BIRT) cuts made by City Council last year.

Since the decision, faith leaders with POWER Interfaith, a grassroots organization committed to racial and economic justice, fear the gradual reduction of the BIRT could potentially harm the city’s working class and most vulnerable residents.

The Pennsylvania Policy Center, a Harrisburg nonprofit, estimates that the elimination of the net income part of the BIRT would cost the city roughly $1.3 billion over the next 10 years.

With the assembly, POWER Interfaith is asking City Council to join it in creating an “affordability report” on the impact of the BIRT cuts, along with funding cuts at the state and federal levels.

The report would coincide with several actions planned over the next few months by POWER Interfaith and its members, including Northwest congregations like St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Germantown Friends Meeting, Germantown Jewish Centre, and Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting.

“Councilman Isaiah Thomas agreed to partner with us in finding that data, and so that was the immediate next step presented to members of City Council, because we recognize that the crisis that we are up against requires all the information that is available,” Meg Cruz, the Northwest Philadelphia organizer for POWER Interfaith, told the Local. “The quantitative data that the city may have will help elucidate what the impact of these cuts will look like and what type of solutions would be needed.”

As POWER Interfaith looks to complete the report, members of its affiliated congregations will gather stories from neighbors and congregants on how the affordability crisis is impacting them.

“On March 3, we will be hosting a press conference releasing our report about the affordability crisis and what we’ve learned, and then also delivering these stories about the affordability crisis to members of City Council,” Cruz said. “[The intent is to] demonstrate that this is a crisis that requires really intentional action in a more aggressive and ambitious agenda.”

Following this, in April, POWER Interfaith plans to have its members attend and speak at council members’ budgeting town halls. The goal is to use this year’s budgeting process as an opportunity to ask questions about “how our city is responding to this crisis,” Cruz said.

“After we have spent time gathering input from our leaders in our base, ideally in partnership with members of City Council on the affordability crisis and what these tax cuts may mean for our city, [we will] publicly launch in June the concrete asks and vision that we have for an affordability agenda that we hope to see replicated in the 2027 budget,” Cruz said.

The decision to reduce BIRT was included in the city’s fiscal year 2026 budget, which passed 15-1, with Working Families Party Councilmember Kendra Brooks voting against the budget and Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke not voting while on a leave of absence.

The gradual reduction of the BIRT tax last year coincided with the repeal of a BIRT tax exemption for businesses under $100,000 in gross receipts. Now, businesses that make less than $100,000 will have to pay the BIRT tax for the 2025 tax year.

The exemption repeal came after ZOLL Medical Corporation, a Massachusetts-based medical devices and software company, sued the city in 2024, arguing that the exemption violated Pennsylvania’s Uniformity Clause.

The lawsuit did not reach a legal conclusion; however, City Council and Mayor Cherelle Parker repealed the BIRT exemption in 2025.

Brooks and O’Rourke opposed the repeal for smaller businesses and proposed raising the exemption to $200,000 in their “People’s Tax Plan.” They also called for the city to follow through on the legal challenge to the exemption, rather than repeal it.

In a statement to the Local, Jordan Levy, spokesperson for O’Rourke’s office, said, “There will be a good early benchmark for [POWER Interfaith’s] questions as budget season commences, when we see this year’s BIRT revenue under these new changes. The BIRT in particular aside, [Councilman O’Rourke] shares POWER’s concerns about revenue generation, which is why the People’s Tax Plan also included a modified Philly Wealth Tax projected to raise [about] $200 million a year.”

In February 2025, the Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission released its interim report recommending the elimination of the BIRT, with the goal of easing the tax burden on businesses and bringing jobs to the city.

The 2026 budget vote, which included the BIRT reductions, was split along party lines between the Working Families Party Minority Leader Brooks, and Democratic council members.

The Local reached out to Councilmember Cindy Bass, asking for her perspective on the BIRT reductions, but did not hear back.

Tommy Tucker can be reached at Tommy@chestnuthilllocal.com.