Nutter Vetoes $4 Surcharge on Parking Tickets
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By Mike Dunn
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Mayor Michael Nutter today vetoed a City Council plan to add a $4.00 surcharge on all parking tickets, with half the proceeds going toward the upkeep of city parks.
The plan, conceived by Councilman Mark Squilla (right), would have $2 of the surcharge going to the Philadelphia Parking Authority for stepped-up enforcement of taxi and limousine regulations. The other $2 would be earmarked for the Department of Parks and Recreation.
But Mayor Nutter has now vetoed the plan, saying earmarking the proceeds is not legal.
"Any additional revenues that the Parking Authority has above what's required to go to the City of Philadelphia is required to go to the School District of Philadelphia," the mayor said. "And so, for that reason, I vetoed the bill."
The measure, though, had been passed by Council last June with a vote of 16-1, more than the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto.
Squilla says he is considering calling for an override vote when Council opens its fall session this Thursday.
Also today, the mayor also vetoed one of two controversial bills that would have allowed the bar "Finnigan's Wake," in Northern Liberties, to expand. Nearby residents had opposed the expansion.
