City Council Snubs Mayor’s Plan to Raise Cash for Schools

City Council and the Nutter administration are still haggling over how to begin to hire back the thousands of teachers and staff members that were laid off to close a $300 million budget gap. Nutter and Gov. Corbett are proposing extending the city’s 1% sales tax to funnel $50 million to schools immediately. (And $120 million annually by 2015.) Council President Darrell Clarke has argued he wants to see half that revenue go to shore up the city’s pension fund.

Today, Council declined to move Nutter and Corbett’s proposal forward, and instead, the appropriations committee voted for a plan to sell off unused school buildings to raise the same amount. The official vote is expected to pass Council before it reaches the Mayor’s desk, where it seems likely that he’ll veto it. PEW, for what it’s worth, recently cast doubt on Council’s plan, making the case that in other cities, similar plans brought in far less cash than hoped for. [CBS 3]

 
This post has been updated for clarity.