Spectacular victory for Philly schools - pretty depressing
By Dave Davies for NewsWorks on Jul 3, 2014 11:45 AM
In a stunning, come-from-behind legislative win in Harrisburg, Mayor Michael Nutter and backers of the beleaguered Philadelphia school system managed to get a key vote last night authorizing a cigarette tax in the city to fund the schools.
Without it, there was the prospect of 1300 layoffs and schools not opening on time in September.
But honestly, this is awful. The alternative, I admit, was worse than awful. It was catastrophic. But consider where we are in funding schools for Philadelphia kids:
The city now has the right to levy the fifth straight tax increase on its citizens for schools in recent years, and that leaves us $40 million or so short of being able to open schools this fall with an educational product pretty much everybody believes in unacceptable.
To respond to the schools funding crises of recent years, Philadelphia has imposed three property tax increases, made permanent an extra one percent sales tax within the city, (leaving us with a sales tax that's 33% higher than neighboring suburban counties), and now imposed a $2-pack cigarette tax on those who buy their smokes in town.
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House approval cigarette tax hailed as victory by officials, school funding advocates
After a seesaw week of negotiations in Harrisburg, House legislators late Wednesday night passed, by a 119-80 vote, an read more