He also demanded that district officials detail how they would spend any additional city and state dollars - they provided that information on Thursday as well.
The signing came a day before what could be a critical Council hearing on three tax proposals to raise money for the schools - two from the mayor and one from Majority Whip Darrell L. Clarke.
The mayor is pushing his two-cents per ounce sugary drinks tax to raise $80 million a year. He also has proposed a 10 percent property tax hike that would raise $95 million.
Council raised property taxes 10 percent last year, and there appears to be little support to do so again. Nutter also proposed a soda tax last year, but the measure met fierce industry and union opposition and never came up for a vote.
Nutter will have to battle the lobbying and public relations might of the beverage industry once again. The face of the industry here, Harold Honickman, has been identified as the city's richest man and is one of its most generous philanthropists.
On Thursday, Honickman was working the floor of Council Chambers, reminding members that the soda tax would add $1.35 to the average $1.21 2-liter bottle of soda.
Honickman, owner of Canada Dry Delaware Valley Bottling Company in Pennsauken, provides 19 percent of the sweet drinks in the city, with Coke and Pepsi dividing up the rest. Honickman predicted that sales would come to a halt as buyers go outside the city, and Nutter would see only a fraction of the money he expects from the tax.
"There physically won't be product sold in the city," Honickman said.
Clarke's proposal would increase property taxes by about 3.5 percent, raising $37 million in revenue. He said that gets the city to $50 million - $6 million by increasing the hourly rate on parking meters in Center City and University City, plus another $7 million from reserves.
The district's budget gap is $629 million.
