City may change sales tax, pension fund
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
By: Susan Phillips
sphillips@whyy.org
Philadelphia's legislative delegation to Harrisburg says they support the Mayor's efforts to get the General Assembly to pass legislation allowing the city to raise the sales tax and make changes to the pension funds. A meeting Monday was attended by state lawmakers, Mayor Nutter and City Council members.
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Speaking after the meeting, Mayor Nutter says he told the lawmakers that thousands of city workers would be laid off if the city cannot raise the sales tax.
Nutter: If we are not successful in Harrisburg, we would have to severely cut back in a number of public safety and social service areas and other departments and agencies in our city government would have minimal services just because we don't have the dollars.
State Senator Larry Farnese says before they approve the measure, some up-state lawmakers want to see fiscal reforms.
Farnese: They want to make sure that Philadelphia, that we watch our spending that they make significant cuts and that they make smart cuts.
After the meeting, Nutter went to Harrisburg to make his pitch to lawmakers from smaller cities like Reading and Lancaster.