Nutter seeks support for budget rally
Mayor Nutter hopes his former opponents will join him today in a 2 p.m. City Hall rally, where he will call on state lawmakers to pass the legislation the city needs to avoid widespread layoffs and deep service cuts.
Mayor Nutter hopes his former opponents will join him today in a 2 p.m. City Hall rally, where he will call on state lawmakers to pass the legislation the city needs to avoid widespread layoffs and deep service cuts.
The administration is asking library supporters, patrons of city pools, and residents who need and use other city services to attend the rally, including some of the same groups who vigorously protested Nutter's earlier budget-trimming plans.
"The mayor has asked his deputy mayors to reach out to stakeholders, to people who've demonstrated a connection to city government, including some of those who've stood against us at certain times," Nutter spokesman Doug Oliver said.
Nutter also plans to explain in some detail what cuts the city will have to make if state lawmakers do not approve the pension restructuring and penny-per-dollar increase in the sales tax that the city is seeking.
"We've all worked hard to come up with a budget we could live with. That budget is on the ropes now, and the cuts we're threatened with if we lose [are] so severe and so broad that it actually makes friends of people who may not always see eye-to-eye," Oliver said.
Various social-services providers, who stand to lose funding should Harrisburg turn down the city's requests, have been invited.
It was unclear yesterday how many community organizations planned to participate. A number of activists who had protested previous city budget cuts said yesterday that they were unaware of the rally.
If the group is large, the rally will be held in the City Hall courtyard, Oliver said. If it rains, or if the group is small, the event will be held in the Mayor's Reception Room on the second floor of City Hall.
