DN Editorial: Collective relief from Mayor, Council

WE DON'T CARE if cynics view yesterday's City Hall press conference with Mayor Nutter and 11 members of City Council as a face-saving death annoucement of the Sanchez-Green business-tax proposal.

We think it's worth conveying that even if this was just a theatrical show of rare kumbaya unity between the Mayor and City Council, it's one we hope to see more often.

Our elected leaders should know that these optics matter. They should know that while their work includes navigating byzantine political intrigues inside City Hall, the rest of us out here in the real world see those intrigues as a large distraction from what they should be doing: Putting aside petty differences and working together to solve the city's many problems.

The message from Nutter et al yesterday was that he and Council will work together to add improvements to the business-tax structure, especially for small businesses. The changes will not go as far as what Sanchez and Green wanted - a radical restructuring of how businesses are taxed - but improvements will surely be drawn from that proposal. Green and Sanchez, who worked for two years on their proposal, shouldn't see this as a loss, but as a win for them: They brought issues to the table that deserved serious review, they got people to pay attentionand in the end, our leaders stood together.

And speaking of planetary shifts, we're also heartened to hear that GOP lawmakers, who seized control of the state House during the last election, say they are close to announcing a plan to scale back the generous perks currently provided to elected officials.

That means the totally free healthcare, free car from the state fleet, and a flat rate per-diem of $157 for every day the Legislature is in session may all be about to change.

All we can say is, it's about damn time. *