The city on Jan. 1 doubled the rate, from $1 to $2 per hour, that the Philadelphia Parking Authority charges for metered spaces in Center City.

A second increase, to $3 per hour, had been planned to start yesterday but was put on hold.

The increases were meant to reduce the number of drivers who park their cars all day at meters. That lack of meter turnover adds to traffic congestion.

The city wanted meters for short-term parking and hoped to push drivers to use lots or garages for all-day parking.

It worked. Actually, it worked a little too well on the edges of Center City, where the authority is now dropping the meter rate from $2 to $1.50 per hour because so many parking spaces opened up.

The authority defines Center City as 4th to 20th streets and Arch to Locust streets. The outer area where the rate will drop to $1.50 goes from Center City north to Spring Garden Street and south to Bainbridge Street, and between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers.

Rina Cutler, deputy mayor for transportation and utilities, said that the city would not consider going to $3 per hour for meters until the authority installs multispace- meter kiosks, allowing drivers to use dollar bills, credit cards and debit cards.

"We're not expecting people to walk around with rolls of quarters in their pockets," she said.

Still, a Daily News straw poll of the city's Harrisburg delegation shows that many local members are wavering on the sales-tax increase. We reached out to the 33 Philly members of the state House of Representatives and state Senate with this question:

If a vote were held today on Philadelphia's temporary sales-tax increase, would you be a yes, no or undecided?

A total of 18 responded - 7 said yes, 2 no and 7 were undecided. State Sen. Vincent Hughes said that he was "leaning yes" and state Rep. Kenyatta Johnson declined to comment.

Those in favor largely said that they would vote yes because the alternative was so much worse.

"The mayor says he needs it," said Rep. Ronald G. Waters. "If we don't do it, I'm afraid of what that means."

Rep. Mike O'Brien, who is opposed, said that he'd prefer to see the city use gaming revenues to plug the budget gap. Though the city has said that this isn't an option, O'Brien said that he wasn't convinced.

And the undecideds said that they are still mulling over the options - stressing that this is a complicated time in Harrisburg.

"I think it would depend on what the overall situation is in terms of our budget," said Rep. John Taylor, who added that he wasn't sure that the proposal to raise the sales tax had the votes. "Right now, if it came up today, it probably wouldn't be passed."

Mayor Nutter will give back his 5.13 percent increase, as will 19 cabinet members and commissioners who are scheduled for the increase, a spokesman said yesterday.

Nutter slashed his $186,044 salary 10 percent in November in announcing budget cuts to deal with the worsening financial crisis. The COLA amount is $9,544, for a total giveback of about $28,000. Nutter is also taking a 2 percent cut in the form of a one-week furlough this year - five unpaid vacation days that he'll most likely work through.

Council Majority Whip Darrell Clarke said he was waiting for a chance next week to meet with Council President Anna C. Verna, who has been out since her husband, Severino, died June 13.

The Nutter administration has asked the four unions representing the city's more than 20,000 blue- and white-collar workers, whose contracts expire Tuesday, to accept four-year contracts with no raises. In that light, Clarke said, it may be difficult for Council members to accept an increase in their $112,233 salaries.

"If the municipal workers don't get a raise, we'd have to consider doing something different," he said.

Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sánchez said she could not see Council taking a raise of any kind "given the economic times."

"I'm clear that it would be inappropriate for City Council, at this time, to take the increase," she said.

How that would work is unclear. Council established the automatic annual raise in 2003, when it overrode a veto by Mayor John F. Street and upped Council salaries from $85,339 to $98,000.

The COLA is based on the current Consumer Price Index, which came in at 5.13 percent this year, Finance Director Rob Dubow said. Last year it was 1.57 percent.

That 2003 ordinance also raised all other elected officials salaries, including the mayor's, which rose from $144,009 to $165,000.

Most important, Clarke said, is that whatever Council's 17 members decide, they act as one. He said he did not like it this year when eight members gave back 5 percent of their salary - Clarke was not one of them - and the others were criticized in the press.

"We're going to have a conversation, because whatever we do, we should all do the same," Clarke said.

"There are over 3,100 pension funds in Pennsylvania and about 60 percent of them have 10 people or less. That has to change. What we should be talking about is: Should there be a statewide municipal pension fund? And are we willing to give up some of our control?" he said.

When combined, all of the municipal pension funds account for $4.7 billion of unfunded pension liability, said Kevin Evanto, Mr. Onorato's spokesman. He added that the state Legislature would have to create a mechanism to allow for the merger of the municipal pension systems.

The benefit of consolidation, Mr. Onorato said, may save municipalities big market fluctuations. In the past few years, Pittsburgh saw its pension funding drop from having 44 percent of the required amount to 29 percent, he said, and the county's pension went from 94 percent funding to 80 percent.

What is more, Mr. Onorato said, municipalities, big cities and counties should start by "fighting special interest groups that keep lobbying Harrisburg to increase benefits and lower the retirement age."

"It's pretty hard to argue against increasing benefits, but the reality of the day is that we can't continue down this road," he said, noting that Allegheny County's retirement board has consistently lobbied Harrisburg to keep the retirement age where it is at age 60 with 20 years of service.

Mayors of five Pennsylvania cities — Lancaster, York, Reading, Easton and Bethlehem — announced Tuesday they've formed a coalition to meet the challenge of paying for municipal government.

The cities had been the subject of a study earlier this year by the Pennsylvania Economy League. The report said what many in Lancaster have known for some time: The cost of firefighters, police and public works is going up, but cities' ability to raise revenue isn't.

What became apparent during a news conference in the Lancaster County Convention Center on Penn Square — held two days before the Pennsylvania League of Cities' 110th annual conference opens here — is the mayors' determination to lobby state government for a specific tax reform proposal.

House Bill 1682, authored by state Rep. Mike Sturla of Lancaster, would allow individual counties to impose a 1 percent sales tax and share about half of that revenue with local municipalities.

The only tax cities of the third class, like Lancaster, can raise now is the property tax. Income or business taxes can't be raised, and new taxes such as a per-alcoholic-drink levy can't be imposed.

"We have great restaurants and businesses and historic attributes and architecture," said Sal Panto, mayor of Easton. "We put on a great show, but the reality is we are putting on a great show on a budget that could crash at any time."

A "crash" would come in the form of municipal bankruptcy, in which the state would step in to fix a city's finances, wrenching municipal budgets away from local control.

The mayors said such a scenario is increasingly possible because of skyrocketing health care costs, overburdened pension systems and salary increases for union employees mandated by arbitration (cities cannot legally refuse an arbitration ruling).

But they're mandated to provide public services.

"It's not that we have too many police, firefighters and public works people," Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray said. "We can't pay for what we have."

But if the mayors are hoping House Bill 1682 can get passed, the political reality may be harsh. Any such tax reform must come through the powerful Senate Republican caucus, which has prided itself on rejecting every tax increase proposal thrown its way for the last 2½ years.