Council and Nutter still at it over taxes
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
By: Tom MacDonald
tmacdonald@whyy.org
Philadelphia City Council is continuing its budget deliberations and hearings. The council is still at odds with the mayor over raising property taxes.
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Philadelphia City Council does not appear ready to give Mayor Nutter the temporary property tax increase he wants to balance the city budget. Council is pushing for a five year extension to the property tax, borrowing from the out years to pay for immediate needs. Councilman William Greenlee says its a way to help people who can't afford a property tax hike.
Greenlee: There's no good proposal and I know economically its not so-called good policy to have to borrow on your operating expenses but these are not usual times and we have to find the best of what is probably poor choices.
Mayor Nutter says he doesn't want to raise property taxes, but without them the cuts will be worse. He wouldn't say how far apart he is with council, but did say that things can move quickly when it comes to budgets.