DROP Goes the Weasel
When faced with widespread voter outrage over DROP, City Council still won't bite the hand that feeds it.
You've got to hand it to Philadelphia City Council. Its members are nothing if not consistent in their blockheadedness.
Even those who've been forced out of a job by the overtaxed masses continue to vote with their wallets, not brains. How else to explain the 15-2 passage of legislation to save DROP, the excoriated and expensive deferred retirement plan that makes Philadelphians gag at the mere mention? These officials are so entrenched, they give entrenchment a bad name.
But is anyone surprised? Two years ago, Council President Anna Verna said famously of her half-million DROP haul: "I'm entitled to it." At the same time, Verna's likely succesor, Majority Leader Marian Tasco, whined that she "resented" being "maligned" for taking a perk available to all city workers.
Really? Are any garbage men or file clerks pocketing $478,057 for retiring for a day? If so, please contact me.
-- Monica Yant Kinney
(read more at philly.com/blinq)