The option the Nutter admnistration had this year in crafting its new budget was: do we make cuts in city services or find some way to raise more money? The envelope, please. And the winner is: new taxes! And they are doozies. Unable, for political and legal reasons, to raise the big three: wage, sales and business taxes, the administration proposes a $300-a-year fee on trash collection, levied on each property owner to raise $107 million and a 2-cent-an-ounce "sugar tax" on drinks that contain sugar and other sweeteners. It will raise $77 million on a full-year basis. The mayor will formally advance the ideas today (March 4) when he presents his budget to City Council. See the Daily News coverage
here and the an Inquirer story on a sugar tax
here.
