PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council and Mayor Jim Kenney have made some progress in budget negotiations, agreeing on a package of modest tax cuts. However, they have some hurdles still to overcome in getting a new budget agreement.
Councilwoman Cherelle Parker has agreed to remove her proposal to cut the parking tax by a third from consideration for now, but not without a lament that tabling the cut would delay improved wages and benefits for workers.
"This fight is not over. I will continue to stand with low-wage essential workers and do everything I can to bring them out of poverty," she said.
"We were attempting to secure industry-wide standards that if they were adopted by all firms, they would have provided these men and women with an increase in wages."
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On wage taxes, Council has agreed to the cuts that Kenney proposed for residents.
For non-residents, Kenney has agreed to accept a smaller reduction than he proposed, returning the non-resident wage tax to the pre-pandemic level of 3.448%. City residents will pay 3.9%.
The parking tax will go down from 25% to the pre-pandemic rate of 22.5%.
Still at issue, though, is the business income and receipts tax and the overall spending plan.
Council members would like to spend more of the federal funding from the American Rescue Plan. Kenney wants to make it last, to cover all of the revenue shortfalls that are expected for the next several years as the city recovers from COVID-19.
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