Council budget talks continue with little support for Philly property tax hike

Philadelphia City Council continues its struggle to find a way to provide more money for the city schools. 

Council President Darrell Clarke, who said the nearly 10 percent property tax hike proposed by the Nutter administration was a tough sell already, said Wednesday that conversations in Harrisburg cast doubt on whether the hike would be offset by tax relief.

“It was presented in a way that we would have tax relief from the state,” Clarke said. “That tax relief at best won’t be forthcoming until the next fiscal year, so we are wrestling with how to get funding to the school district on a short-term basis.”

There’s no guarantee the city school district will get its request of an additional $100 million in new, recurring funding, Clarke said.

“The deficit is $82 million, I think that council and the state will deal with that particular deficit,” he said. “The $300 million figure [from the city and the state] is essentially [schools Superintendent William] Hite’s Cadillac version of what he’d like to see moving forward.”

Council must approve the city budget, and any new funding for the schools, by the end of the month.