Gotham City: Maverick Lassoes City Council

Gotham City:
Telling Tales of Our Capital Region's Politics

Maverick Lassoes City Council

by Frank Pizzoli

Destry rides again in the person of Curt Whitcomb. A resident of Harrisburg’s 23rd Street, he has challenged the media to ask City Council some questions about the city’s budget and council’s 50 percent pay hike.

Whitcomb bought his city home in 1965 and estimates that he has paid about $50,000 in taxes over the 30-plus years he’s lived there. “I’m going to lose my home after all these years with even a small real estate tax increase,” he says from his living room, steeped in paperwork and reports on regional planning and development issues.

Specifically, Whitcomb wants council to ask themselves, and then explain to the public, why they think Mayor Stephen Reed’s originally proposed tax increase of 28 percent is too high but don’t feel the same about their 50 percent pay raise. Council has since whittled the 28 percent figure down to 10.7 percent.

Council’s pay hike amounts to $35,000 annually in real dollars or a $5,000 increase annually for each of the body’s seven members. As of November 1999, there are 20,267 real estate parcels in the city. Of that total, 1,464 are “exempt” from paying real estate tax. Another 26 are “mixed” assessments. For example, a church used for worship is not taxed but its parsonage and social hall are. That means 15,803 parcels pay into city coffers.

If each of the 15,803 parcels covers their share of council’s pay hike, that comes to about $2.21 more each year. That’s not even a good bottle of beer at most watering holes, but that’s not Whitcomb’s point.

“I’m not happy that Vera White-Reynolds thinks more money will eventually attract youth to run for office,” Whitcomb explains. “Whatever happened to the idea of public service, of giving something to the community. What kind of message is that to our children? Run for office because the pay is good? That’s how we end up with professional politicians who take care of themselves and forget why they were elected to begin with, to represent citizens.”

Whitcomb also wants the media to ask council if they will decrease their salary increase “to show your good faith in properly representing your constituents.” He feels that citizens end up with the government they deserve by virtue of voting for the wrong candidates or, more importantly, by not voting at all. “Only action and involvement creates change,” he stresses.

Whitcomb is no stranger to controversy. He is co-founder, along with Jim High, of the Patriot Party, now registered with about 200 members as the Reform Party in Dauphin County. Within the party structure, he represents the 15th Senatorial District that currently seats Sen. Jeff Piccola.

In his early years, Whitcomb was a bootleg broadcaster on a clear, daytime channel. He went into Harold’s Radio, a once popular shop on 4th and Walnut streets in the city, and bought a 450-volt transmitter. “I played records and could say what I want,” he says, with gusto.

Whitcomb is once again saying what he wants — and asking the questions he thinks are important to the city’s continued success as a regional business and entertainment Mecca. He is also organizing a petition to Governor Tom Ridge asking that state government find a sensible way to reimburse the city for the large areas of land on which it does not pay taxes. “It’s not good when state government poach off the backs of citizens happy to host them in their city, but not happy they get stuck with the bill.”

Time will tell.