THE 8:30 REPORT: This Morning in Philly
Disincentive to leave New Jersey about to increase mightily: It must be a Philadelphia plot to keep Jerseyites out. The Delaware River Port Authority has announced plans to increase the toll on the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross, and Commodore Barry bridges to $4 in September, and $5 in September 2010. PATCO fees will also jump — 10 percent in September and another 10 percent in 2010. Public hearings on the increases will be held on July 22nd at Rutgers and July 23rd at the South Philadelphia Cruise Terminal. [KYW]
More details emerge about the Rohm & Haas sale to Dow: The Haas heirs who own a big chunk of the company (no, sadly, no relation) were advised last year to diversify their holdings, and CEO Raj Gupta worked quietly for months to develop a plan for the company to buy them out. An agreement was reached in June, but once word got around, offers from Dow Chemical and BASF were impossible to ignore. Dow won with a $78-per-share cash deal that values R&H at $18.8 billion. For now, it looks as if the headquarters will stay in Philadelphia and that there won’t be major employment cutbacks. [Inquirer]
City contemplates Garbage Mountain, quickly cans trash fees: The “pay as you throw” trash collection trial balloon floated a few days ago has been punctured and put in an appropriate receptacle. We should all be glad they listened to people like Dennis Lee, director of Project NEAT, who spoke truth to the Metro: “A fee will create more litter than recycling.” [Metro]
