City Council appears unwilling to approve Mayor Cherelle Parker’s $1 rideshare tax for public education while the School District of Philadelphia moves forward with a plan to shutter 17 schools as part of a $3 billion, decade-long facilities master plan.
Lawmakers on Tuesday questioned Parker’s finance team and summoned school officials in the middle of the hearing to respond to inquiries, a day after Board of Education President Reginald Streater announced that the BOE would hold a final vote on the building proposal Thursday.
“I support fully funding our schools. I support fully educating our kids,” Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. said. “What I’m not going to do is raise taxes on one hand, cut services on the other hand.”
Later, Jones characterized the rideshare fee as “DOA,” or dead on arrival, and suggested that the Parker administration had “maybe” six lawmakers on their side — short of the majority needed in the 17-member body.
“I cannot understand how you’re asking for new taxes to help the school district when they are not operating in good faith,” Councilmember Nina Ahmad remarked. “This is highly irresponsible to come to us to put this tax on poor people, on elderly, on the sick.”
Members criticized decisions to shut down particular schools and bristled that they were not more involved in the decision-making.
“To us, it feels like you’re not listening,” Councilmember Jamie Gauthier said. “At the same time you’re not listening, you’re coming in here and asking us to do something hard for you. How dare you do that? How dare you?”
Lawmakers also rebuffed the notion that anyone who does not back Parker’s rideshare tax does not support the city’s public schools. Last week, the mayor rallied with education advocates, union leaders and school principals who called on Council to adopt the proposal.
“Why are we the ones that are put on blast about not supporting children?” Councilmember Quetcy Lozada commented. “We also represent people that are struggling in their communities who cannot afford to pay another tax. This is crazy.”
Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson asked Streater to put off Thursday’s vote. He said he would respond to that request Wednesday, when the School District is scheduled to return for what is expected to be another bombastic hearing.
Council made clear Tuesday that they are not willing to disentangle the rideshare tax from the facilities plan, despite attempts from the school system and Parker administration to separate the issues.
“They are different topics,” Streater said. “They are different situations.”
Representatives from the Parker administration said the rideshare levy is projected to generate $48 million a year. Combined with $2.4 million from a change in the use and occupancy tax related to cell towers, the funding will allow the district to retain 340 teachers, climate staff and counselors who were hired to help out at underperforming schools, officials said.
No one would be laid off if the money does not materialize; rather, the 340 individuals would be reassigned to vacant positions at other schools. Their jobs were paid for through federal pandemic relief funding that has expired, according to district leaders.
Streater said the BOE hoped those roles would become permanent if those federal dollars were extended. That aspiration ended when Donald Trump won the most recent presidential election, he added.
Parker’s initial budget offering included a 20-cent rideshare fee. She hiked it to $1 after hearing about the positions on the chopping block, her finance director, Rob Dubow, testified. He told lawmakers that the administration preferred the levy over increases to the property or wage tax rates.
Uber and Lyft, the two major rideshare giants, have lobbied against the proposal and indicated that the dollar would be passed on to riders. The text of the legislation instructs the companies to collect the fee from passengers; however, Dubow asserted, the firms could adjust their pricing structure to ensure their customers are not paying more.
"This is a consumer tax, plain and simple,” Uber spokesperson Jazmin Kay told Metro in a statement Tuesday. "Uber does not have the option to absorb this tax. The law requires it to be collected from the passenger, and this $1 regressive tax would come directly from riders, as it does anywhere in the world that charges this kind of tax, just like a sales tax."
