Members of Philadelphia City Council will have to swallow hard and deal with two bitter pills -- higher property and sales taxes -- as a result of Mayor Nutter's budget plan.
Meanwhile, unions representing city workers are digging in to protect their turf.
KYW's Steve Tawa reports from City Hall that some members of City Council are saying there is no choice. Others believe there are other paths to those ends, because they don't think two big jumps in property taxes will fly among their constituents.
The mayor got high marks from the Chamber of Commerce for his judgment in not raising either the wage tax or the "business privilege" tax -- because hiking them, business people say, would chase even more jobs from the city.
"Will it chase people to Delaware and New Jersey? I don't think so -- I support the sales tax."
Councilman Bill Green suggests more tinkering with the sales tax:
"There are many different ways to get us through this problem without increasing property taxes. One is, instead of taking it out three years, we take the sales tax out six years."
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