City Councilman Bill Green thinks the people of Philadelphia should chose how to fund their libraries. The mayor, Michael Nutter, thinks it should be his decision.
City Councilman Bill Green, fresh off a successful court challenge to Mayor Nutter’s attempt to close 11 library branches, now wants to take away the mayor’s ability to slash the library budget at all.
Green introduced in Council yesterday a bill to guarantee a funding stream for the Free Library system. The councilman introduced a resolution that would carve 3.1 mills out of the city property tax to be dedicated to libraries. That would generate $33.5 million a year, about the same amount allotted in Nutter’s working budget proposal, Green said.
Such a measure would require approval of voters in a referendum, most likely in the fall. The bill will go to a committee for a hearing.
“What this ordinance does is let voters decide how they want their libraries funded,” Green said in a news release. “This is truly the greatest form of participatory democracy.”
Recent Comments