We learned some good things.

We learned that Mayor Nutter is not the complete ideologue he often seemed to be while in Council, on the issue of business taxes. Then he tried to mandate into law the complete abolition of the main business tax, the BPT. He did this repeatedly and relentlessly, and fortunately he failed. Now, in his first budget as Mayor, he proposed much more moderate BPT cuts, abolishing the gross receipts portion over 8 years, and cutting the net income portion by 12% over the same period of time.

Even more encouraging, when the Mayor learned that the City had a revenue problem due to the recession, he proposed that Council slow the BPT cuts even more. Council followed his recommendation, so now it will take ten years to reach the Mayor’s target, rather than the 8 years he initially suggested.