Council restores some BRT pay

Philadelphia City Council has mitigated Mayor Nutter’s edict that salaries for members of the Board of Revision of Taxes be reduced.

Philadelphia City Council has mitigated Mayor Nutter’s edict that salaries for members of the Board of Revision of Taxes be reduced.

Mayor Nutter wanted the board salaries cut from $70,000 a year to just under $19,000.  The Mayor’s Chief of Staff Clay Armbrister says the cut was designed to make the part time BRT jobs similar to other city boards and commissions.

“It is hard to justify why the members of the BRT make more than three times more than the next highest board and is certainly difficult to defend the city paying $70,000 for what is for part-time work, particularly when the administration is trying to fill a $150 million hole in the FY-11 [Fiscal Year 2011] budget,” Armbrister said.

The mayor has said the cut was meant to punish the board members for not re-signing an agreement to work on changing the board.  Councilman Brian O’Neill amended the bill to pay board members $40,000 a year, which is what a charter change that eliminates the brt would pay its successors.