Upper Darby Mayor Wants Help Paying For Pope-Related Costs
By Dom Giordano
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Mayor of Upper Darby, Thomas Micozzie, will ask the World Meeting of Families to help cover some of the costs incurred by the town this weekend as the Pope visits Philadelphia.
Micozzie told Dom Giordano on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that he expects the final total to be in the $150,000 to $200,000 range and wants some help in paying the bill.
"In addition to our daily concerns here, we're going to be sending an invoice to them for the cost of this. If they can do it for the city of Philadelphia, I can't believe that our other municipalities that have worked hard in the last four months as a region to come together to make this a successful event and shine on the whole area...If I was called to the table, and working together, side by side, with everybody across the region, and you get called there, you think you reach out and say, I have other partners in this. Can we sit down and work this out? That did not happen."
He contends that Upper Darby is actually hurt by the Pope's visit, not boosted financially like other parts of the region.
"It's more of a detraction to some of our businesses. We have some major roads closing. People may shy away from the area because they know that there's a lot of activity going on here. We don't have the hotels that the city of Philadelphia has. We also, as a municipality under Pennsylvania law, we cannot tax similar to what the city of Philadelphia could tax. We're stuck with out regular six percent sales tax. We don't have a local sales tax like Philly has."
Micozzie did add that towns surrounding Upper Darby have been generous with their assistance.
"Delaware County is a unique place, we got a lot of offers of help. Springfield Township has given us officers, Delaware County EMT has given us officers, Clifton Heights, Haverford. There's other municipalities chipping in here."
