{"id":211012,"date":"2026-06-04T22:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/211012\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T22:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:59:07","slug":"philadelphia-council-approves-7b-preliminary-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/211012\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Council approves $7B preliminary budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker<\/a> took shots at rideshare companies Thursday<\/a> after her proposed $1 tax on Uber and Lyft rides<\/a> was struck down by City Council in the preliminary budget.\n<\/p>\n

City Council approved a $7.1 billion preliminary budget, rejecting many of Parker\u2019s tax proposals, including increases to hotel taxes<\/a> and delivery services<\/a>. A final vote on the budget will take place June 11.
\n\"ASome of Parker\u2019s proposals included in the budget focus on the H.O.M.E initiative for housing and funds for multiple support centers in Philadelphia. (City of Philadelphia)\n<\/p>\n

Mayor says \u2018billionaire tech companies\u2019 win \u2018round 1\u2019<\/p>\n

Parker addressed what she called the \u201celephant in the room\u201d after the rideshare tax increase was cut. The tax would have generated $48 million in recurring funding for the School District of Philadelphia, which is facing a $300 million structural deficit<\/a>. The district will instead get a one-time payment of $48 million from the preliminary budget.\n <\/p>\n

Parker called out the rideshare companies\u2019 business practices and lobbying efforts, such as Uber\u2019s six-figure advertising campaign,<\/a> which said it would affect citizens facing a high cost of living, senior citizens and people with mobility issues.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAsking and expecting them to contribute more to the city that they profit from is not unreasonable or illogical. It is fair,\u201d Parker said. \u201cIt is the right thing to do, and I want you to know that I have no intention of stopping.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Why Council struck down the tax proposals<\/p>\n

In addition to the school budget deficit, Parker\u2019s tax proposals also aimed to pay for pothole repairs and fund homelessness prevention. Councilmember Katherine Gilmore-Richardson said striking down the rideshare tax doesn\u2019t mean her colleagues are against the school district.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI reject anyone who will rise anywhere to say that this Council did not stand up to do what we needed to do for our children,\u201d Gilmore-Richardson said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19077,69,63965,71,70,19078],"class_list":["post-211012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-mayor-cherelle-parker","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-budget","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-phillys-100th-mayor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}