Nutter

AS LAST WEEK ended, after Mayor Nutter was the guest of honor at a virtual Whack-a-Mole festival, he turned and fired. Not at the Inquirer for its lengthy series documenting his failure to collect almost $300 million in unpaid real-estate taxes owed on 100,000 delinquent properties, not at unions that condemned him as a union buster, not at an acidic cartoon by Signe Wilkinson and a scornful column by Your Favorite Columnist. Instead, Nutter fired off a letter late Friday afternoon to the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations that brutally bashed (better late than never?

Mayor Nutter has had a tortured relationship with City Council since the outset of his first term, when he asked the members to give up their city cars, a hallowed perk for many. Council members since have sued him (to stop library closures), frustrated his policy goals (twice blocking a tax on sugary drinks), and ignored him (refusing even to introduce a scaled-back pension program that is a cornerstone of the city's offer to municipal unions). On Thursday, they literally walked out on him as he attempted to deliver his annual budget address over the din of protesting municipal union members.

Mayor Nutter issued a scathing letter Friday calling Philadelphia Magazine's controversial "Being White in Philly" cover story a "pathetic, uninformed essay," and asking the city Human Relations Commission to consider a rebuke of the magazine and the article's author. Tom McGrath, the magazine's editor, fired back, accusing Nutter of "sophomoric statements" that suggested he is "more interested in scoring political points than having a serious conversation about race. " Rue Landau, the commission's executive director, replied to Nutter: "The commissioners and I share the concerns of the mayor regarding the racial insensitivity and perpetuation of harmful stereotypes portrayed in the Philadelphia Magazine piece.

Hundreds of chanting and jeering municipal union members, armed with piercing black whistles, drowned out Mayor Nutter on Thursday as he attempted to give his annual budget address on the floor of City Council. Rather than evicting the protesters - who are upset over a four-year stalemate in contract negotiations with the city - Council President Darrell L. Clarke recessed the meeting as Nutter read his speech. Nutter later delivered the speech downstairs to a more friendly audience - about 30 applauding members of his own staff and 20 reporters.

YOU HAVE to imagine that Mayor Nutter would rather be anywhere else in the world Thursday than on the fourth floor of City Hall delivering his sixth budget address. The seats in front of him will be filled with Council members who have steadily picked apart or slowed his agenda for years. The balcony above him will be packed with throngs of angry union protesters who say they are planning a real doozy for this year's address. And the typed words on his podium will be a snapshot of all the things he wants to accomplish with his last three years as mayor - surrounded by so many reminders of why he's struggling to get many of them done.

Hundreds of chanting, jeering municipal union members, armed with piercing black whistles, drowned out Mayor Nutter Thursday as he attempted to give his annual budget address on the floor of City Council. Rather than forcibly evict the protesters - who are upset over a four-year stalemate in their contract negotiations with the city - Council President Darrell L. Clarke recessed the meeting as Nutter read his speech. Nutter later delivered his speech downstairs to a more friendly audience - about 30 applauding members of his own staff and 20 reporters.

As Mayor Nutter prepares to unveil a new budget to City Council, the city's top union leaders on Wednesday excoriated Nutter's handling of municipal labor issues and called on Council members to take their side. "He's trying to take away our right to collective bargaining," said Patrick Eiding, president of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO, at a lunchtime rally that drew about 300 union supporters to the north side of City Hall. Eiding said the union movement would be out in greater force Thursday, trying to pack into City Hall and Council chambers when the mayor delivers his annual budget speech.

Mayor Nutter intends to propose a $15,000 tax exemption for homeowners and $30 million more in other property tax relief in his budget address to Philadelphia City Council on Thursday, according to numerous sources familiar with the administration's plans. The resulting tax rate then would have to be 1.32 percent to collect the same amount of property tax revenue in the next fiscal year as this year - $1.2 billion. That tax rate translates into $1,320 per $100,000 of assessed value.

The politically charged process of deciding how to spread $1.2 billion in property taxes across Philadelphia surged forward Thursday, with Mayor Nutter suggesting a basic tax of 1.32 percent and three tax breaks to ease the impact on lower-income home and business owners. Nutter acknowledged that negotiations with City Council to find the "right balance" were just beginning and subject to change. "But we have to start somewhere," he told reporters after using the Mayor's Reception Room to deliver the budget address that he was unable to finish in Council chambers.