Nutter rejects bill to have city fund parades

Mayor Nutter today vetoed a City Council bill forcing the city to cover the cost of policing community and ethnic parades.

In his veto message to Council Thursday, Nutter said Councilwoman Maria Quinones Sanchez's bill would cost the city more than $2 million in 2009 costs because it is "incredibly" retroactive to last year, Nutter noted.

Nutter has already announced $20 million in cuts, including to police, fire and libraries, in response to Council's $3.9 billion budget, and is asking departments he controls for up to $36 million in additional reductions.

"I fully realize that parades and street festivals are important celebrations of civic pride and that many of them are long-standing traditions woven into our community fabric ... But we simply do not have the financial ability to continue to subsidize all of the additional public safety costs borne by the city as a result of privately organized parades and street festivals," Nutter wrote.

Council is not expected to hold an override vote today. Instead, Sanchez will meet with the administration next week in search of a compromise.

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