If a bill calling for the levy is introduced in the General Assembly, Helm said, she would lead the opposition against it.

Helm is responding to a report the City Council released April 6 that suggested an extra countywide 1 percent sales tax as a means to help pay for the debt generated by a failed retrofit of the Harrisburg Authority's incinerator. The county has guaranteed $110 million of the debt.

"I don't know how the voters could have spoken any more clearly than they did last year that government must learn to live within its means," Helm today said in a statement. "There is no way the citizens of Dauphin County should be burdened with an extra sales tax."

The county commissioners last week said they oppose such a tax.

The tax levy was one of many suggestions included in the report drafted by New York City law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. The council hired the law firm in November pro-bono to help it deal with the fiscal crisis that has Harrisburg on the brink of bankruptcy.