Councilman Kenney: Pass A "Workable Plan" For Budget And Move On

City Councilman Jim Kenney confirms that a tentative deal is in place between City Council and Mayor Nutter on the city budget, dropping the mayor's call to increase property taxes temporarily for two years and leaning instead on Council's proposal to boost the local sales tax by 1 cent for five years.

"I think it's time to get a workable plan and move on," Kenney said. "Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about it. There's so many other issues and areas that we could be working on."

Kenney said the tentative deal stays away from two areas that he considered to be potential "major errors":  Increasing wage or business taxes and borrowing $200 million in the early years of a 5-year sales tax increase based on anticipated receipts in the later years.

"I don't know whose genius idea that was," Kenney said. "But thank God that's gone."