Council exploring ways to avoid soda tax

A Philadelphia City Councilman is proposing an immediate hiring freeze for all new city employees. WHYY’s Tom MacDonald reports it could be a maneuver to eliminate the Mayor’s plan for a soda tax and a new trash fee.

A Philadelphia City Councilman is proposing an immediate hiring freeze for all new city employees.  WHYY’s Tom MacDonald reports it could be a maneuver to eliminate the Mayor’s plan for a soda tax and a new trash fee. [audio:100323TMFREEZE.mp3]

Councilman Bill Green has been calling for cuts instead of revenue enhancements and been hitting all city managers with a questions about unfilled positions and if those job really need to be filled.

Green: Somehow they are getting by and I think we need to just continue to get by until we get through the process, the past is the past whoever is hired is hired but from now on I’d like to keep our vacancies, vacancies.

Councilman Green says by implementing a hiring freeze there wouldn’t be a need to hire new workers who could face immediate layoffs if there is a decision to trim the city workforce to close the budget deficit.  Mayor Michael Nutter says he’s not ready to put a hiring freeze in place for now.