The Pennsylvania legislature had been considering a new warehouse tax, but it has been withdrawn from consideration.

Last week, the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) reached out to regional legislators, brokers, developers, businesses, and other Lehigh Valley stakeholders urging them to join us in opposing a newly-proposed sales and use tax on warehouse services as a part of a final revenue package to close the Commonwealth’s FY 2017-18 budget gap.

We are pleased to report that, due in large part to considerable opposition from various corporate sectors and economic development partners, our team in Harrisburg and various news outlets are now reporting that the warehouse tax is no longer under consideration.

Don Cunningham

“LVEDC offers its deepest thanks to the many members of the Lehigh Valley community who spoke out against this tax, which could have an extremely negative effect on the fastest-growing sector of the Lehigh Valley economy,” said Don Cunningham, LVEDC President & CEO. “We asked for your help, and you answered the call.”

LVEDC and the Lehigh Valley community were identified in the news media as statewide leaders in the effort against this tax.

A Penn State University study estimated this tax would have resulted in the loss of more than 9,000 Pennsylvania jobs. The impact would have been significant in the Lehigh Valley, where the transportation and warehousing sector currently employs about 29,000 people, an increase of 11,000 jobs in the last five years alone.

That sector contributes $1.9 billion to the Lehigh Valley’s 2016 gross domestic product (GDP), and is the fastest-growing sector of the regional GDP, having increased 9.5 percent from 2015 to 2016.

“Out of all states that have considered imposing this tax in the past, 90 percent have either decided against it or repealed it after passing it,” Cunningham said. “Thanks in large part to the opposition voiced by the various stakeholders in the Lehigh Valley community, Pennsylvania has now joined those ranks.”