Debate Wages On Between Mayor Nutter And Council President Over $50 Million Needed For School District
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)--The verbal sparring continues between Mayor Nutter and Council President Darrell Clarke over how to get an extra $50 million dollars to the school district.
On Tuesday, Mayor Nutter complained that Council President Clarke was withholding from him the names of nearly a dozen developers who Clarke says are interested in buying old school district properties.
Two days later Clarke said the mayor's office already has both the locations of the sites in question and the names of prospective buyers.
"They are also aware of the developers, of the interested parties, for properties that are a part of the list that we have forwarded to everyone. And those properties in and of themselves will raise significant revenue, probably close to the $50 million dollars that we're talking about. So this suggestion that somehow they're not familiar with that, it's just not realistic."
Nutter has until next Thursday to decide whether he'll sign off on Clarke building swap plan.
Clarke wants to transfer $50 million directly to the district in exchange for the right to dispose of certain properties. Nutter instead wants the city to tap into sales tax revenues to fund the $50 million. But he has been unable to convince council members to even schedule a debate on the idea.
