Lessons from a budget battle
Last Thursday, City Council decided democracy was inconvenient.
Faced with a deluge of phone calls and an unprecedented outpouring of parent action around the progressive Use & Occupancy tax, City Council President Darrell Clarke shut down an expected vote on the tax and instead announced that the City would seek over $74 million for schools through a tax on cigarettes and improved delinquent tax collection.One City Hall insider told me certain members of City Council were “sh*!%ing bricks” at the number of phone calls they were receiving and were unhappy at the idea of taking a public vote on the Use & Occupancy Tax. At least one City Council office said they had received almost 100 phone calls on Wednesday, the day before the vote.
Council members said that the passage of U&O would threaten cigarette tax legislation moving through Harrisburg. Clarke echoed the sentiments of Council when he said that the City wanted to shift attention away
