After four Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Council members on July 1 proposed reducing the county’s drink and car rental taxes through a referendum, the bill was referred to council’s Committee on Government Reform, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The bill sought to reduce the car rental tax from $2 a day to 50 cents a day in addition to reducing the county’s alcohol tax.

County Chief Executive Dan Onorato has said he would be forced to increase property taxes by as much as 25 percent if the drink and car rental taxes are repealed or reduced.

The group Friends Against Counterproductive Taxation is mounting a signature-collecting campaign to put the drink tax to a referendum in November.

The group of restaurateurs and bar owners needs to collect some 23,006 signatures before Aug. 5, and all indications are that it will have more than that. Given that council is scheduled to recess the week of July 7, and will not be back in session before Aug. 5, a council move to create a referendum question on the levies is essentially dead.