Guess who emerged as the loudest critic of the Nutter administration's plan to add a $300 annual trash-collection fee to property tax bills? John Street. The former mayor, who now teaches government at Temple University, took his class to hear the
mayor's budget address Thursday (March 3) and emerged dissing both the trash tax and the proposed 2-cent-an-ounce tax on sugary drinks. To quote Street: "If you levy a $300 charge on people who own property in the city, that's a tax increase.I don't see it any other way. And what could be more regressive than I pay $300 and somebody in Center City who has a property that's worth $3 million, or maybe $5 million, they pay the same $300? I mean, that is very unfair. . . . It's grossly out of line with the way taxes ought to be apportioned, based on their ability to pay."
