First the mayor came to City Council on Nov. 21 and urged the members not to pass any new property tax legislation. Then he left the chamber and the members proceeded to pass three such bills. So what does the mayor do? He decides to sign one of them. Street’s message explaining his move was read to Council at the Dec. 5 session.

Street chose to sign a bill sponsored by Councilman Frank Rizzo Jr. that would allow homeowners with limited incomes to essentially rack up a tab with the city for property tax assessments they can't afford to pay. Only when they sell their home will the city collect.

According to administration spokesman Frank Keel, the mayor was "philosophically aligned with Rizzo's bill because it did not negatively impact the city's ability to realize additional revenues from property tax increases, but it did allow those who were unfairly impacted to defer payment until such time as they sold their home. The mayor, as he has said all along, is concerned about the whole property tax assessment issue."

But Councilman Michael Nutter, whose bill to cap tax reassessments at 10 percent was vetoed by the mayor, vowed to fight on, calling for a vote to override the mayor's veto. "Members demonstrated their concern by voting for [my] bill 17 to nothing. I don't think anything has changed since the vote. It is even more imperative that members will continue to support the bill and provide real legit tax relief to citizens who need it." So that means he expects to be able to override the veto, right?

Asked whether Street had slyly tried to meet Council halfway in the hopes of pulling off a few of Nutter's backers, the councilman replied, "I try not to comment on [the mayor's] strategy because many times I can't understand it. He has his views on taxes and providing city services and he certainly has the right to make the decisions he makes. But the executive is one part of the government and the legislature is an equal part."

Fine by Thatch

Every street-smart Philadelphian knows it makes more sense to park in a metered spot all day than to shell out for a space in an overpriced Center City parking lot. But all that may change soon. Councilman Frank Rizzo Jr. introduced legislation last week on behalf of absentee Republican W. Thatcher Longstreth to increase parking fines in the city for the first time since 1991. If the bill becomes law, the expired meter fine will go from $15 to $20.

It's a political profile in courage to introduce such a bill in a town where outwitting the parking system is a longstanding tradition. For this task, the administration tapped City Council Republicans. Rizzo says he assumes Street chose the GOP because they're the party in charge at the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) due to a statehouse power grab.

Not wanting to be known as the councilman who is out in front on the campaign to raise your parking ticket fines, Rizzo says his introduction of the bill simply "starts the legislative process. We'll have a hearing. We'll look at the rates and decide which need to be increased, which need to be decreased. This was strictly a courtesy to the mayor."

Ironically, City Council Republicans are more courteous towards the mayor these days than most Democrats.

PPA Director of On-Street Parking Richard Dickson says the parking ticket bill is politically feasible since it only targets those who break the law. "We were very deliberate in not increasing the parking meter fees. We don't want the cost of parking for people who actually abide by the regulations to be affected at all."

All the Wage

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Philadelphians must be scratching their heads at news that New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has called for instituting a 2.7 percent wage tax on suburbanites who work in his city. This would put New York just a few tenths of a percentage point below Philadelphia’s infamous commuter wage tax. But wage-tax-fighting policy wonk David Thornburgh, of the Metropolitan Philadelphia Policy Center, says you just can’t compare the two cities. “New York is an unusual place … especially in its concentration of financial services businesses. There’s a magnetic pull to Manhattan and even more specifically to Wall Street, which means you have to work there,” he says, even if you have to pay high taxes to do it. “If we had the same kind of magnetic pull … then the commuter tax would have less of a [negative] impact.”