I’m serious.

Earlier today, Stanley Lawson, president of the Harrisburg chapter of the NAACP urged the imposition of martial law for thirty days in the city of Harrisburg to help stop the recent string of gunplay in our streets.

Clearly, there is a problem facing our city. But it’s not just this city…it’s nation wide.

And Stan Lawson wants to take away the civil liberties of law abiding, tax paying, society-contributing citizens in order to restore safety to the poorest of neighborhoods?

Additionally, Lawson urged Governor Rendell to bring in the National Guard and impose a curfew in the city.

Which means that you and I and everyone else who participates in neighborhood clean ups, pays mortgages, takes care of our homes, patronize local businesses and raise families would have to be in our homes by a predetermined time nightly and pass M-16 wielding, Hummer driving soldiers.

Again- I ask- is Stan Lawson out of his fucking mind?

The violence in this city has increased of late- but we’re not at a critical mass. I don’t fear leaving my house. It’s 1:07AM right now and I just walked a few blocks without any worry of being shot or mugged. The people who are shooting each other aren’t killing and shooting at random.

And unless the majority of the 47,000 (and falling) residents of the city of Harrisburg suddenly get involved in the drug trade, we don’t have much to worry about either.

But Stan Lawson wants to take away our liberties to make the streets safer?

No thanks, Mr Lawson.

Step away from that microphone, sir. You’re only making things worse.

Finally.

After nearly five years of poking the administration with a stick, we’re about to (hopefully) see a major change in Harrisburg’s Amusement Tax.

If you’ve read this blog even once, you probably know that the Amusement Tax issue has been my “cross to bear” since the beginning. I’ve drafted proposals, begged, pleaded and attempted to coerce City Council to take some action based on the fact that a promoters profit on a concert is anywhere from ten to fifteen percent of gross ticket sales and factoring in the city’s demand for ten percent of ticket sales leaves the promoter with practically nothing in the end.

I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve done when the City has received more in Amusement Tax than I’ve made in profit- but it’s been more than I’d like to admit.

But if things go well with legislation which is currently being drafted, independent promoters of shows in venues with 500 or fewer people in the City of Harrisburg are about to get a ten percent raise on their bottom line (you’re welcome).

Here’s the long and short of it: a few months ago, OutWithSara introduced me to Mayor Reed at McGraths Pub following the taping of our first podcast. The initial meeting went like this:

Sara: Mayor Reed? This is Mike Van Jura…he’s the blogger known as Jersey Mike.

Reed: (quizzical look) So YOU’RE Jersey Mike. I’ve certainly heard YOUR name more than once.

Me: Heh. Likewise, sir. It’s nice to finally meet you.

After the pleasantries were out of the way, I dove right into it. The main issue I’ve had with living, working and doing business in this city is the Amusement Tax. And, frankly, if the City would just level the playing field for independent promoters, I’d probably quit complaining so much. What’s a guy gotta do to get a tax reformed?

Not give up, apparently.

Over the next month-or-so, I ran into the Mayor two more times. Both of which he assured me that he’d do some research and let me know if we’d be able to work something out with the issue.

About a month ago, I got a phone call from his secretary scheduling a meeting for a Friday afternoon in May. Unfortunately, that particular Friday was of the week of the primary election. And we all know how that turned out.

So we rescheduled to this past Wednesday afternoon.

I arrived on time- and waited patiently for our first non-barroom sit-down.

And it began.

You see, the Amusement Tax cannot be amended because of a Commonwealth law prohibiting it. I don’t know exactly which law, but it’s in there nonetheless. So the ordinance- 32-1982- cannot be modified.

Reed went on to explain that what he’s going to do is as follows: the law bureau is drafting legislation which calls for the abolition of the Amusement Tax. (!!!) In it’s place will be a new “event fee” imposed on events which have more than five hundred people attending.

Which is exactly what I proposed to council some two years ago.

Now, don’t misread this- the fights not over yet.

The legislation needs to be drafted, presented to council, put into committee (likely Budget and Finance), researched, taken out of committee and brought before council for a vote.

My heart says that they’ll approve it.

But my mind says that we still may have miles to go before we sleep.

Anyway we slice it, though, this can certainly be chalked up as a “Win” for local, independent promoters in Harrisburg.

Stay tuned…

The inaugural episode of Off The Record- the brand spankin’ new podcast collaboration from Sara Bozich and I.

Sara and I have known each other for about five years now and, only recently, have become more chummy.

Usually, our friendship consists of meeting at an undisclosed bar where we can smoke, drink and gossip about all things Harrisburg.

After a few weeks of these meetings, we had the thought that our banter and chit-chat was just SO witty and catchy that the world as we know it would not be the same unless we recorded our conversations and shared them with the internet.

Caught up with our mutual friend Jay Bowser who kindly whipped up the logo, met up on April Fools Day at a bar, pressed “record” and WANGO BANGO! Here it is.

Episode I clocks in at just over an hour. The first portion is sort of an introduction…and then we jump right into it.

We’ve got an email address- offtherecordhbg[at]gmail[dot]com. If you dig what you hear, please- tell your friends. If you don’t like it, then please tell your friends as well. (Hey, we’re both big proponents of “any press is good press”)!

Without any further ado- we proudly present you with-

Off The Record- with Sara Bozich and Jersey Mike

(Tags: Harrisburg, Floor-9, Dave Sheranko, Ken Mueller, Fred Clark, Table 15, Nonna’s Deli, Breads and Spreads, Sara Bozich, Jersey Mike, Mayor Reed, Steve Ketterer, Chuck Schulz)

Papenfuse is scheduled to discuss for the first time his reasons for resigning from the Harrisburg Authority as well as his cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (that’s the FBI for those of you just tuning in) on their corruption investigation of several Harrisburg City Officials.

In related news, within minutes of receiving word of Papenfuse’s press conference at 5:30 Thursday, Mayor Steven Reed announced a press conference of his own…at 4:30 on Thursday the 26th of February.

Keywords: Mayor Steven Reed, FBI Corruption Investigation, Harrisburg.