Cigarette tax vote canceled; schools opening in jeopardy
By Dale Mezzacappa on Jul 31, 2014 07:10 PM
Pennsylvania House Republicans have canceled a planned session on Monday to vote on a $2-a-pack cigarette tax in the city, jeopardizing the next school year for tens of thousands of students.
"Here we are again," said a frustrated Superintendent William Hite at a hastily called press conference Thursday afternoon.
Schools are now weeks from opening but without assurances that the District will have enough funds to operate a functional system, much less one that offers an acceptable education.
The same thing happened last year, and the city's schools still don't have a guarantee of reliable, recurring revenue sufficient to their needs.
Hite, Mayor Nutter, and City Council President Darrell Clarke all called the cancellation of the vote "devastating." House Republicans said they would come back on Sept. 15 instead, but Hite says he needs assurances of the money by Aug. 15 in order to forestall all kinds of operational decisions, including up to 1,300 layoffs.
"We support Dr. Hite's belief that ensuring schools are safe and adequately staffed is more important than opening schools as planned on September 8," Nutter and Clarke said in a joint statement.
In making the decision, House Republicans urged Gov. Corbett to advance money to the District, but Hite said that might be no help.
"I don't know what that advance means," he said. If it is simply advancing money earlier, rather than an infusion of new funds, "that doesn't help us...we still need Cigarette tax vote canceled; schools opening in jeopardy | Philadelphia Public School Notebook: