Philly City Council backs off requiring paid sick leave

City Council held off on a vote Thursday to mandate paid sick leave, while also voting to reduce the parking tax and regulate bouncers at bars.

Councilman William K. Greenlee, sponsor of the sick-leave bill, said he did not have enough votes to try to override Mayor Nutter's June veto.

But Greenlee said he believed Philadelphia eventually would pass such a law, noting that Seattle on Monday became the third city in the United States to do so.

"It's coming," Greenlee said.

He said he became convinced that requiring paid sick leave was the right thing to do after talking to people who had been unable to "pay a gas bill or buy food for their kids" after missing work due to illness.

Ellen Bravo, executive director of the Family Values at Work Consortium, a national group that advocates for family and paid sick leave, said she believed Council would revisit the bill. She supports the measure for many reasons, including that it reduces the spread of disease.

Nutter said it would make more sense as state or national legislation. If Philadelphia acted alone, he said, the city would become less attractive to businesses than surrounding suburbs.

Another sensitive business issue, the parking tax, also puts Nutter and Council on opposing sides.

The parking tax was raised three years ago, from 15 percent to 20 percent. A bill passed Thursday would reduce it by one percentage point a year, starting in 2014, until it reached 17 percent.

Nutter seemed poised to veto the proposal, saying it would rob the budget of $24 million over the next five years.

The legislation passed, 12-5, with several Council members saying they preferred to explore a more broadly based reduction in business taxes rather than targeting one industry.

Nutter also supports that approach. He said he had promised parking industry leaders that he would explore cutting their taxes as part of a larger proposal in 2014.

"They will, in essence, suck up some of the planned reductions for all businesses by, at this moment, greedily going after tax reduction that we can't afford," Nutter said.

Councilman James F. Kenney, who sponsored the bill, said the mayor should not be worried about losing tax revenue because cuts would not start for more than two years.

Robert Zuritsky, president of Parkway Corp., which operates lots and garages, said the city could make up for the lost revenue by cracking down on rogue parking operators who pay no taxes.

Greenlee also introduced his bouncer bill to require most establishments that serve alcohol to provide safety training for bouncers. People in those jobs also would have to register with the city, at $40, so they would be easier to track down if problems occur.

"This just puts some responsibility on them," said Greenlee, who said he was inspired in part by a recent Philadelphia Daily News report about a patron badly injured in 2008 by a bouncer at a Center City bar.

Mike Driscoll, an owner of Finnegan's Wake, a popular Northern Liberties bar, said he was not sure registration makes sense. He said that bouncers - "door hosts," as Finnegan's calls them - do need training, and that his get yearly education.

"It's really important when you're dealing with people who are involved with alcoholic beverages," Driscoll said.