The Inquirer and Daily News both did extensive reporting on some additional troubles with the School District budget and some uncertainty with Paul Vallas's future.
Both Nutter and Fattah have weighed in with press releases. I haven't seen anything from the other candidates but judging from these two releases, this could be a distinct difference between Fattah and Nutter.
Comments (2)
Keep in mind that the property tax issue and the school district budget shortfall issue are directly related.
If Philadelphia is to maintain very low property taxes, either through the current assessment system or one based on proposetion 13 (which is supposedly illegal due to the state constitution's uniformity clause), I think that it will have to start providing more funding to the district through wage tax revenue. It could also increase the percentage property tax revenue that goes to the school district (currently, it's a little over half) and, in fact, a bill was recently introduced in city council that would do just that.
All of that still doesn't put the district off the hook as to why it keeps going way over budget.
Posted by Dave![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blogs.phillynews.com/dailynews/nextmayor/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 13, 2007 7:57 PM
BTW, don't take me for a tax/budget expert. I program computers for a living ;-)
Posted by Dave![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blogs.phillynews.com/dailynews/nextmayor/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 13, 2007 8:25 PM