By Mike Dunn

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A City Council plan to add a $4 surcharge on all parking tickets is now dead.

Mayor Nutter last week vetoed the $4 ticket surcharge, calling the measure illegal on several fronts.

The author of the plan, First District Councilman Mark Squilla, has decided not to try to override the mayor’s veto, even though the measure passed originally by an overwhelming majority.

Squilla says if he had called for override, the whole thing would have ended up in court.

“I really didn’t want to waste time in the courts, and the money,” Squilla explained.

Squilla said he is now looking for alternatives.

“We’re looking at different ways to try to reintroduce something that may work,” Squilla said.

Squilla’s now-defunct plan would have earmarked half of the surcharge for city parks, and the other half for increased enforcement of taxi-cab regulations.

The Administration contended that earmarking in this manner was not legal, and that revenues above what is paid to the city must, by law, go to the School District.