I’m putting up this blog just to clarify the record regarding Mike Nutter’s record on the BPT. From time to time posters have suggested that Nutter didn’t really push repeal of the tax. So without getting back into the pros and cons of whether repeal is a good idea, I just wanted to get the facts out.

Nutter introduced 3 bills to repeal the BPT, (although he was quoted in a Daily News article in June 2006 as claiming 4. Either he was just bragging, the DN misquoted him, or I missed a bill.)

Nutter’s first effort at full BPT repeal was Bill 040010. That was introduced on January 22, 2004, passed by a vote of 10-7 on May 31, 2004 and vetoed on 6/10/04. It would have zeroed out the tax in 2015. An attempt to override the veto was made on the same date and failed by 2 votes. Then there was Bill 040608 introduced on May 27, 2004, even before the veto of Bill 040010 was cast, but when it was known to be inevitable. That bill reconfigured the schedule of tax reductions to postpone the largest increases until later in the schedule and not zero it out until 2017. That bill was passed on June 21, by a vote of 11-6, vetoed on July 1, 2004, and attempted to be repassed over the mayor’s veto on the same date. That override failed by one vote. But Nutter wasn't finished. On September 23, 2004, well before the next budget was even offered by the Mayor, and to make the point that tax abolition was required regardless of the spending needs of the city, he introduced a third zero tax Bill 040767. That bill was passed on June 2, 2005 by a bare majority of Council, 9-8. The mayor sent his veto on June 16, 2005 and that veto was sustained by 3 votes. This bill was the most “moderate” of the 3, requiring that Council vote again in 5 years to impose the back end of the scheduled tax repeal which would have thereby taken effect in 2017.

At that point, when Nutter saw the votes for full repeal going in reverse, he settled for marginal cuts in the gross receipts tax. And then he quit to run for Mayor.

Anyone who wants to check the full text of Nutter’s bills as passed should go to the City Council bill search site at http://legislation.phila.gov/mattersearch/ There you can put in the bill numbers posted above and find both their histories and full text.