Philadelphia officials work towards budget compromise

Philadelphia’s Mayor and City Council are trying to strike a budget compromise that would address proposals for trash and soda tax.

Philadelphia’s Mayor and City Council are trying to strike a budget compromise that would address proposals for trash and soda tax.

Mayor Michael Nutter says things are being put on and taken off the table by the minute as he and City Council work to close a 150 million dollar budget deficit. The latest idea is increasing the commercial trash fee.

“There are any number of different items that are topics of discussion, that’s an issue that was raised by some council members,” says Mayor Nutter. “We are looking at it. We need to evaluate just what would be involved and what would be generated by any of these different ideas.”

It appears at this point the residential trash fee will be replaced by a 9.9 percent property tax hike.

The soda tax is still alive, although it appears it will be less than the two cents an ounce first proposed by the mayor in his budget address…if it’s part of the final deal.