Nutter Actually Supports Ballot Measures

Mayor Nutter, it turns out, actually supports two ballot initiatives that voters will decide tomorrow.

The Inquirer and other news outlets reported today that the Nutter administration opposed two of the four questions on the ballot - one that would allow the creation of an independent body to set water and sewer rates and another that would require the administration to provide more budget information to Council.

The mayor's spokesman, Mark McDonald, said last week that the administration feared another level of political control over the Water Department would affect it's ability to borrow money. The administration, he said, also opposed the ballot question on budgeting because the city didn't have the technological ability to provide the information that would be required.

Councilman Bill Green, who has pushed for the city to update it's budgeting practices, said last week that he had agreed with the administration to work on a timetable for instituting the changes. He was surprised to hear that the administration was opposing the measure.

McDonald called today to correct the record.

"There were discussion to which I was not privy," he said. "The administration does not oppose the two measures."

In McDonald's defense, the administration did oppose them during Council committee hearings ealier this year, but Nutter officials since have come to an understanding with Green and Council President Darrell L. Clarke, who sponsored the measure to create an independent body for setting water rates.

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