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Nutter administration: No new taxes

Mayor Nutter's spokesman said today that the administration won't propose any new tax hikes for the 2013 fiscal year budget.

Forget the rent.

A large number of Philadelphians would be charter members of the "City Taxes Are Too Damn High" party, according to a poll that was released earlier today from the Pew Charitable Trusts' Philadelphia Research Initiative.

This bit of late afternoon news is for any city resident who also feels that his taxes are too high: Mayor Nutter doesn't plan to include new tax increases in his fiscal year 2013 budget, which will be unveiled next week.

Mark McDonald, Nutter's spokesman, announced the news while offering the administration's response to the Pew poll, which found that 70 percent of those surveyed described high taxes as a "somewhat serious" of "very serious" problem.

"I think the mayor's view is that he has no intention of requesting any kind of tax increase in support of the fiscal '13 budget," he said.

Nutter raised property taxes last year -- after a second failed attempt at getting support for a tax on sugary beverages -- to raise money for the cash-strapped School District of Philadelphia.

"Last year, there was a real estate tax increase for the schools on the school portion of the real estate tax, but that wasn't directly related to the budget," McDonald said.

Neither the fiscal year 2013 budget nor the five-year plan that the mayor will introduce on March 8 will feature any calls for new taxes, McDonald added.

Some residents could end up feeling a bit of pain later this year, however, when the city completes a long-overdue reevaluation of local property taxes.