New Council voices weigh in on key issues

CITY COUNCIL welcomed six new members this week, a bright-eyed bunch with big plans to improve the city.

They face some tough decisions.

The city's and state's tax revenues are down again. So we sat down with the newbies to ask about their plans for your tax money.

We asked how they feel about the city's property-tax reassessments, which aim to fairly value citizens' homes for the first time in decades but which could result in many of those same people getting big tax hikes.

Mayor Nutter wants to finish the reassessments in 2012, but Council members could delay the reform by refusing to change the property-tax rate.

We also asked whether the newcomers would support a continued reduction in the city's business taxes, since that's likely to come up again this year.

We quizzed them on what they'd cut from the city's budget, if they had to (you'll notice most of them played the "I'm new to Council" card on this question) and what they think the city should spend more on. We politely inquired whether they'd support public hearings on Council's budget, since Council is the only part of city government that doesn't have to explain its spending. Here's what they had to say: