Convicted former labor leader John J. Dougherty is again asking a federal judge to cut short his six-year prison term, this time because he says the recent death of his father-in-law has left his gravely ill wife without a caregiver.
Dougherty made the request in a brief filed last month with U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl, writing that his wife, Cecilia — who for years has suffered from a debilitating brain injury — has been left “entirely alone and without any capable caregiver” since her father died from pancreatic cancer on Nov. 10.
Dougherty has previously argued that he should be granted compassionate release and allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence on house arrest to oversee his wife’s care — a request federal prosecutors have opposed.
In the latest request, Dougherty’s attorney, George Bochetto, wrote that Dougherty’s father-in-law, Joseph Conroy, had been serving as Cecilia Dougherty’s primary caregiver despite his own poor health and that Conroy’s death is “precisely the type of development” that warrants a change to Dougherty’s sentence.
Dougherty, Bochetto wrote, “remains the only person able and willing to provide his wife’s necessary care. No one besides Mr. Dougherty can fill the detrimental need that Mrs. Dougherty requires for survival.”
Federal prosecutors, however, said that Dougherty had previously asserted that Conroy was incapable of serving as Cecilia’s primary caretaker and that his newest motion for relief “directly contradicts” the representations he made in the last one.
“In short, the unfortunate passing of Mr. Conroy has no bearing at all on the circumstances,” prosecutors wrote in a reply brief filed last week.
Dougherty, 65, was once one of the state’s most powerful political figures, serving as the charismatic leader of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers with a wide range of connections in City Hall and Harrisburg.
Dougherty’s latest request for relief came several months after he first asked Schmehl for compassionate release.
In August, Bochetto filed an emergency brief saying that a trust fund established to pay for Cecilia Dougherty’s care was about to run out of money and that the couple’s adult daughters were not equipped to serve as permanent caregivers.
It also said Conroy, “once a limited source of support, is now medically incapacitated and permanently unable to contribute to her care in any way.”
Beyond detailing issues around the health of Dougherty’s wife, that filing said that Dougherty had also effectively run out of money and assets since he began serving his sentence at a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg and that he’d suffered from several new health issues while behind bars, including a chronic foot infection that made it hard for him to walk.
Prosecutors at the time wrote that they were sympathetic to the plight of Dougherty’s wife but that his absence from her life “does not distinguish this case from that of countless defendants whose loved ones suffer as a result of their crimes.”
It was not immediately clear when Schmehl might rule on Dougherty’s requested relief, or if he might take any additional action — such as scheduling a hearing — before doing so.
Philadelphia City Council is escalating its clash with some harm reduction providers, with lawmakers on a key committee voting Monday to ban mobile addiction services from parts of Kensington and its surrounding neighborhoods.
Members of Council’s Committee on Licenses and Inspections voted, 5-1, to advance the legislation, which covers the Lower Northeast-based 6th District, represented by Councilmember Mike Driscoll, the bill’s sponsor.
The area stretches from the eastern side of the intersection at Kensington and Allegheny Avenues — long the epicenter of the city’s opioid epidemic — north along the Delaware River and up to Grant Avenue.
The full Council could vote on the legislation as early as next month.
Map of the 6th Council District, the target of proposed legislation to ban mobile addiction services.
Some Kensington residents who have begged lawmakers for years to address the sprawling homelessness and addiction in the neighborhood said they support the legislation because the providers draw people who use drugs into residential areas.
“I have grandkids who can’t come and see me because of where grandmom lives at,” said Darlene Abner-Burton, a neighborhood advocate. “It’s not fair that we have to endure what we have to endure. No one should live like we do, and no one should go through what we go through.”
However, a half dozen harm reduction advocates testified that the legislation would not reduce homelessness or addiction, but would instead erect barriers to medical care that vulnerable people rely on and would lead to more overdose deaths.
“Every member of our community deserves dignity and compassion, not punishment,” said Kelly Flannery, policy director at the Positive Women’s Network, an advocacy organization for people with HIV.
Flannery called the measure a “cruel ban.”
Councilmember Mike Driscoll, who represents the 6th District and authored the legislation, greets Mayor Cherelle Parker after her first budget address in City Council in March 2024.
It’s the second time Council appeared poised to pass a bill aimed at restricting mobile service providers, which are groups that operate out of vans or trucks and offer a range of assistance to people in need, including first aid, free food, and overdose reversal medication.
Earlier this year, Council voted to pass restrictions on the providers operating in the nearby 7th District, which covers the western parts of Kensington.
But that bill — which passed the full Council 13-3 and was signed by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker — was not a blanket ban.
That legislation, authored by 7th District Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, requires providers obtain a license, and it limits organizations that provide medical services to specific areas designated by the city. Groups that offer nonmedical services like distributing food are prohibited from parking in one place for more than 45 minutes.
The city is expected to begin enforcing that law on Dec. 1.
Driscoll said he introduced his own legislation to ban the services from his district entirely because he was concerned that providers who faced restrictions in the 7th District would migrate into the neighborhoods he represents.
The only committee member to vote against Driscoll’s legislation Monday was Nicolas O’Rourke, a member of the progressive Working Families Party who represents the city at-large and also opposed the 7th District legislation.
City Council this week again delayed a key piece of legislation that needs to pass before the Parker administration can sell hundreds of millions of dollars in city bonds, the primary source of funds for the myriad housing programs being created or expanded through the mayor’s Housing Opportunities Made Easy initiative, or H.O.M.E.
The delay comes as lawmakers negotiate to amend the legislation — a resolution setting the first-year budget for H.O.M.E. — to increase spending levels beyond the currently proposed $195 million and to lower income eligibility thresholds for some programs, prioritizing poorer residents.
The most recent setback came this week, when Council President Kenyatta Johnson canceled a Monday hearing to advance the resolution and declined to reschedule it before Thursday’s regular Council meeting, when the administration said the proposal would need to receive final approval for the first $400 million round of bonds to be sold in 2025. (The city plans to sell a second and final $400 million tranche of bonds in 2027.)
The administration sent Johnson’s office an initial draft of the resolution in July, but the Council president has repeatedly delayed advancing the measure throughout the fall.
“It is critically important to get the first-year spending plan right because what is agreed upon in the first year will influence all future spending for the H.O.M.E. program,” Johnson said in a statement explaining the cancellation of Monday’s hearing. “It is also essential that the final legislation include spending priorities important to City Councilmembers.”
Parker is known as a hard-line negotiator who rarely cedes ground, and Johnson’s delays might be meant to send the signal that if she doesn’t bend on Council’s demands, he won’t meet her timelines.
The saga marks a rare moment of discord between Parker and Johnson, who have worked hand in glove on most issues since both took office in January 2024 — including the passage of the initial package of legislation related to H.O.M.E. last spring.
At left is Council president Kenyatta Johnson speaking with Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker before start of her press conference regarding her first budget in Philadelphia City Hall on Thursday, June 6, 2024.
In a hearing last week, Johnson appeared to side with lawmakers, led by Housing Committee Chair Jamie Gauthier, who were pushing for the administration to lower income thresholds for some H.O.M.E. programs, saying the city should prioritize the neediest Philadelphians.
Parker has proposed expanding income eligibility requirements in some cases so that the programs can also be accessible to middle-class residents, saying she does not want to pit “the have-nots vs. the have-a-littles.”
‘Pit one against the other’
Even with the bonds delayed until next year, the mayor does not appear to have given up the fight to maintain her vision for the housing initiative. At an unrelated Council hearing on the school district on Tuesday, Parker brought up the H.O.M.E. initiative unprompted.
She then called out four Council members who have middle-class constituencies that are likely to benefit from increased income thresholds for housing programs: Curtis Jones Jr., whose district includes Roxborough and Overbook; Anthony Phillips, who represents East Mount Airy and West Oak Lane; Mike Driscoll, of the Lower Northeast; and Katherine Gilmore Richardson, who represents the city at large but is a Democratic ward leader for Wynnefield.
“I am unapologetic about making sure that constituents represented by you … should not be left out of any investment that we make in the city of Philadelphia,” Parker said. “Every community can be lifted up with the work that we are doing, so I won’t let us pit one against the other.”
The remarks, however, effectively pitted members with poorer constituencies against those with middle-class bases. Johnson represents Southwest Philadelphia and the western half of South Philly; Gauthier’s district covers much of West Philadelphia.
Despite the dustup, it remains unlikely that a lasting fissure has emerged in Parker and Johnson’s relationship, given that they still share many policy priorities and can benefit each other politically.
“Council President Kenyatta Johnson and I have an amazing working relationship,” Parker, a former Council member, said in an interview Monday. “Council has a right to do its due diligence. If I hadn’t been there, if I wasn’t a former staffer in there, maybe it would be foreign [to me]. No. We’re going through the process, and I have to trust the process.”
Additionally, Johnson standing up for Council members’ concerns over the H.O.M.E. budget may help shield him from questions about whether he is overly compliant with the mayor’s agenda.
“Both branches of government remain committed to ensuring the H.O.M.E. program is implemented transparently, equitably, and in a way that maximizes benefits to Philadelphia residents,” Johnson said in his statement. “Taking extra time to finalize these critical elements will result in a stronger, more effective program.”
Tracking progress
The administration is not waiting for the H.O.M.E. bonds to be sold to start notching wins for Parker’s 30,000 housing units goal. The city’s Philly Stat 360 website has already begun tallying units built and preserved during her tenure.
To be sure, some of the mayor’s strategies for the H.O.M.E. initiative do not require bond money. For instance, Parker has led a shake-up of the Land Bank, which she hopes will accelerate the redevelopment of unoccupied city-owned parcels into housing, and she won Council approval last spring for zoning changes meant to streamline building.
But the potential infusion of $800 million is undoubtedly the centerpiece of the initiative. The money will help launch programs like Parker’s One Philly Mortgage, which aims to provide 30-year fixed-rate loans to qualified homebuyers, and will buttress existing ones like the Basic Systems Repair Program, which has been credited with preventing the displacement of low-income residents who end up moving if they cannot afford needed home repairs.
“It’s never been done in the history of our city, and we do that together in partnership with each other, and that’s what we’re working to do right now,” Parker said.
Staff writers Jake Blumgart, Kristen A. Graham, and Anna Orso contributed to this article.
Philadelphia City Council is attempting once again to change city law to allow members to keep their jobs while running for higher office, an effort that has already failed three times in the last 20 years.
Maybe the fourth time’s really the charm?
This attempt is a little bit different. A Council committee on Wednesday advanced legislation to change the 70-year-old resign-to-run rule that requires city officeholders to leave their jobs while campaigning for another office.
But the legislation — which must be approved by a majority of voters through a ballot question — doesn’t repeal the rule entirely. It merely narrows it to allow members to keep their seats if they are seeking state or federal office, such as seats in Congress or the state General Assembly.
Under the new proposal, Philadelphia’s resign-to-run rule would remain in place for members seeking a city office, like mayor or district attorney.
That distinction makes the rule change more likely to become reality, said Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who sponsored the legislation even though voters rejected attempts to eliminate the rule in 2007 and 2014.
More than a year ago, Thomas proposed that the city try again to eliminate the rule entirely. But this week, he amended his proposal to apply only to those seeking state or federal office, calling that a compromise.
“I personally think that you should be able to run for mayor and keep your seat in City Council,” Thomas said. “But that’s not what the majority of people who I’ve talked to feel. And I don’t think that this should be about how I feel. It should be about what’s best for the city.”
A necessary measure or a barrier to entry?
Thomas, a Democrat in his second term who represents the city at-large, is one of several Council members rumored to have aspirations for higher office. But there is not currently an obvious seat for him or his colleagues to seek.
Thomas said he is not currently interested in serving in Washington — he has two young children — but said he has some “amazing colleagues” who may want to run for Congress in the future.
Councilmember Isaiah Thomas speaks during a City Council Committee on Legislative Oversight hearing held at the Museum of the American Revolution in April.
The resign-to-run rule has been codified in the Home Rule Charter since 1951 when the charter was established. Proponents have long said that public servants should not be influencing policy while campaigning for another office.
But others contend that the rule — which applies to Council members, row office holders, and members of the mayor’s administration — creates an unnecessary barrier for people who want to run for higher office but can’t financially withstand giving up their salary.
The rule also recently led to a handful of lawmaker vacancies. In 2022, six of City Council’s 17 members — including now-Mayor Cherelle L. Parker — resigned to run for mayor, at times making it complicated for the city’s legislative body to govern.
Ethics questions emerge
Multiple ethics officers said they oppose the change as it’s currently proposed. Jordana Greenwald, general counsel for the city’s Board of Ethics, said the board was not involved in drafting the rule change, and has a handful of “technical” concerns about its implementation.
“What we don’t want is for this to be passed and then it to become something where there are unintended problems or pitfalls for people who choose to take advantage,” Greenwald said.
Thomas said there is “plenty of time” to address the board’s concerns before passage. He is hopeful the legislation can be passed in time for a question to appear on the 2026 primary election ballot in May.
But Lauren Cristella, CEO of the good-government group Committee of Seventy, questioned the urgency and said Council should give the Board of Ethics time to do its “due diligence.”
While the Committee of Seventy has supported past attempts to repeal resign-to-run, Cristella said she does not understand the purpose of a carveout for members seeking state or federal office.
And she said any repeal should be paired with a three-term limit for Council members, who are currently not term limited.
“Philadelphians deserve comprehensive, not piecemeal, reform here,” she said.
Several Council members said they support Thomas’ legislation, pointing out that state and federal lawmakers do not need to resign from their jobs to seek higher office.
“It’s an issue of consistency across the board,” said Councilmember Cindy Bass, a Democrat who represents parts of North and Northwest Philadelphia. “It’s crazy when everyone’s doing something different.”
An array of dishes were set out for the critics — whole-wheat lasagna rollups, veggie samosas, cheeseburger bites with dill pickle ketchup.
The jurists did not hold back.
“That’s bussin’,” one student said of the lasagna, indicating his approval of the dish.
Semia Carter, a student at Crossroads Academy, tastes a burger bite while taste testing potential school lunch food on Wednesday at at Philadelphia School District headquarters.
“Mid,” another commented on the cheeseburger dish, shrugging his shoulders to emphasize how very mediocre it was.
Hundreds of city students descended on Philadelphia School District headquarters Wednesday for a food show — their chance to weigh in on dishes that might show up on their school breakfast and lunch plates next year. Thirty-three manufacturers showed off 55 products not yet in district cafeterias, from whole-grain onion rings to turkey sausage bites.
It’s one of the biggest days of the year for Lisa Norton, the district’s executive director of food services.
“We give the students voice to select the menu that they will eat every day,” Norton said. “It’s the dietary fuel that students need to learn.”
Norton knows her critics won’t hold back. She was prepared for that.
“They will tell the vendors, ‘We don’t like this,’” she said. “But that’s what we need. We want to buy food they’ll eat.”
All around Norton, students scoped out offerings, tasted things that looked good, then recorded their thoughts after scanning QR codes on their phones. At one station, a man dressed as Elvis danced and encouraged students to try more.
Three friends from Hancock Elementary in the Northeast said everything they tried was “really good” — an improvement from the food offered in their cafeteria now. (Though Philadelphia is a “universal feeding” district, so every student receives free breakfast and lunch regardless of income, the Hancock students were like most who spoke to The Inquirer — they said they eat school food only sometimes, preferring to bring lunch from home most days.)
“Sometimes it’s mystery mush,” sixth grader Alina Leone said of current school food offerings.
“Sometimes it’s not bad,” said her classmate Calie Sharpe.
“There’s pizza almost every day,” said Aislee Blaney, another Hancock friend.
Havyn Nelson, a seventh-grade student at Lingelbach Elementary in Germantown, found the brownie bars and the taco meat tasty.
Peyton Sanders, Havyn’s classmate, scrunched her nose when asked to describe the dishes her school offers now.
“It’s prison food,” Peytonsaid.
Jannette Carpentier of Acxion Foodservice serves Southern hush puppies to students during a taste test at the Philadelphia School District headquarters on Wednesday.
Angelo Valvanis, who works for the company Grecian Delight, offered students beef gyro with what he marketed as “white sauce” — tzatziki sauce. His firm has dishes that students in Chicago, Detroit, and New York eat, and it was hoping to break into Philly.
“You guys ever get gyro from food trucks? It’s really good. You know, the meat that turns, and you cut it with a knife? It’s from Greece,” Valvanis said.
The idea of school lunch still conjures the image of tasteless, lukewarm, floppy food — hot dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets — but school meals have changed, Valvanis said.
“These kids are much more open,” he said. “They all see these things on YouTube.”
In front of him, a group of students nodded.
Gabby Swaminathan, a sixth grader from Meredith Elementary in Queen Village, nibbled the gyro. It was good, she said.
“Our food at school right now is not that good,” Gabby said. Her strategy was to rate the food she liked — the gyro, the lasagna roll-ups — really highly, with hopes those will eventually replace the food she doesn’t like.
Chef Tony Rizzo of Chase Franklin Food Company shows Marieta pasta ahead of a student tasting session at the Philadelphia School District headquarters on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s event was timely. Several members of Philadelphia City Council grilled district officials about the food at a Tuesday hearing on school matters, saying constituents had concerns about the quality of the meals served to students. The elected officials said they want to come to a Center City school to eat the same lunches students eat.
Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. explained the district’s conundrum — its food service program must be funded completely by reimbursements fromthe U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“The dollars are not robust enough to have filet mignon everyday, but it is sustenance, and I say that very respectfully,” Watlington told Council.
Kameron Garrick and Amaud Burton-Bullock, students at Martin Luther King High, can say definitively they have never been served filet mignon at school.
They mostly skip school lunch, they said, and buy food at a corner store or eatathome.
But sure, they were game to try the offerings.
The cheeseburger bites? OK.
“I would say it’s mid,” Kameron said. “It needs more seasoning.”
But they found a bright spot — the cornbread bowls with chicken.
“I would take that cornbread,” Amaud said. “It was nice and moist.”
Kervens Orelus, a student at Lingelbach, gets a corn dog from Elvis during a testing session at the Philadelphia School District headquarters on Wednesday.
Fetterman has not announced whether he will run for reelection in 2028, but the progressive party put out a public declaration Tuesday pledging to endorse — and, if necessary, recruit and train — a challenger.
The announcement, first reported by The Inquirer, is a remarkable step for the left-leaning organization to take more than two years before an election and speaks to the degree of frustration with Fetterman among progressives.
“At a time when Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are doing everything they can to make life harder for working people, we need real leaders in the Senate who are willing to fight for the working class,” Shoshanna Israel, Mid-Atlantic political director for the Working Families Party, said in a statement.
“Senator Fetterman has sold us out, and that’s why the Pennsylvania Working Families Party is committed to recruiting and supporting a primary challenge to him in 2028.”
Fetterman did not immediately return a request for comment about the Working Families Party’s announcement.
The Working Families Party is a progressive, grassroots political party that is independent from the Democratic Party, but it often endorses and supports Democratic candidates.
Though he supports extending federal healthcare subsidies, Fetterman has long said he is against government shutdowns as a negotiating tactic and will always vote to get federal coffers flowing and federal employees paid.
“I’m sorry to our military, SNAP recipients, gov workers, and Capitol Police who haven’t been paid in weeks,” Fetterman said in a post on X after the vote. “It should’ve never come to this. This was a failure.”
Already one of the most well-known and scrutinized senators in Washington, Fetterman was back in the spotlight this week as he returns to work following a hospitalization after a fall near his home in Braddock. His staff said he suffered a “ventricular fibrillation flare-up” and hit his face, sustaining “minor injuries.”
Ventricular fibrillation is the most severe form of arrhythmia — an abnormal heart rhythm — and the most common cause of sudden cardiac death.
He spent Thursday and Friday in the hospital and was released Saturday, saying he was feeling good and grateful for his care with plans to be back in the Senate this week.
Working Families on the offensive
Israel said in addition to the online portal, the party will hold a number of recruitment events across Pennsylvania in the coming months to train candidates and campaign staff on the basics of running for office and managing a campaign with hopes of finding quality candidates for a variety of races ahead of 2028.
The party is also pledging a robust ground game and fundraising for a potential challenger it supports.
It wouldn’t be the first time the Working Families Party has opposed Fetterman. In the 2022 Democratic Senate primary, WFP endorsed State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Philadelphia) over Fetterman, who was lieutenant governor at the time.
The book makes no mention of a reelection bid but laments the ugly politics he experienced in both the Democratic primary and his general election race against Mehmet Oz.
Fetterman said in the book that Oz’s attacks during his rehabilitation from his stroke became so mentally crushing he felt he should have quit the race.
And he grapples with criticism he faced during the primary surrounding a 2013 incident in which he wielded a shotgun and apprehended a Black jogger he suspected of a shooting. Fetterman calls the backlash an early trigger of his depression.
Fetterman has said he will remain a Democrat even as Republicans have lauded his independent streak and willingness to work with the GOP.
Earlier this year, Fetterman was the first Senate Democrat to support the Laken Riley Act, a Republican immigration bill that requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain and take into custody individuals who have been charged with theft-related offenses, even without a conviction. Critics of the law say it severely cracks down on due process for immigrants.
Fetterman was the sole Senate Democrat to vote to confirm Attorney General Pam Bondi, who was one of Trump’s attorneys when he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“He has repeatedly shown disregard for the rights of Palestinians,” the Working Families Party release said. “Refusing to support a two-state solution and breaking with the rest of the Democratic caucus on Israel’s illegal annexation of the West Bank.”
Staff writer Aliya Schneider contributed to this article.
Prosecutors have charged Keon King with murder and other crimes for allegedly kidnapping Scott, shooting her, and burying her body behind a closed East Germantown school in early October.
King was arrested in two separate incidents in December and January in which authorities allege he violently assaulted an ex-girlfriend. In the second incident, he is accused of kidnapping her and choking her in his car.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner held a press conference at his office regarding the death of Kada Scott on Monday, October 20, 2025.
District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office requested bail to be set at just under $1 million in that case. A judge instead set bail at $200,000, allowing King to be released after posting the necessary $20,000. Krasner’s office did not appeal the bond decision.
Prosecutors then withdrew both cases after the victim and witnesses failed to appear in court. Krasner has admitted that dropping charges against King for the second incident was a mistake because there was enough video evidence to proceed with the prosecution. But he also directed blame at the courts for letting King out on bail following eacharrest.
“As the City of Philadelphia, I think we failed the young lady, right?” Council President Kenyatta Johnson told reporters Thursday. “You got two agencies, two city departments, pointing fingers at one another, and at the end of the day, that’s not going to bring resolution to the family. And so at the end of the day, that needs to be addressed. And so we’ll look at the system as a whole.”
Council approved a resolution authored by Johnson that will allow the Committee on Public Safety to hold hearings on how the courts, sheriff’s office, district attorney’s office, and police department work to protect domestic violence victims.
Kada Scott ‘a beacon of light and love’
Remembering Scott: Council also approved a resolution by Councilmember Anthony Phillips honoring Scott’s life and legacy, describing her as a “a beacon of light and love, remembered for her faith, kindness and countless lives she touched.“
Scott, who opened a beauty spa in Mount Airy when she was 19 years old, “was the kind of person who made others feel seen,” said Phillips, whose 9th District includes Mount Airy.
Prosecutors have charged Keon King with the murder of Kada Scott, pictured.
“Kada was a young woman whose light and kindness reflect the very best of us,” Phillips said in a speech on the Council floor. “She had vision and determination. She believed in the power of self-care, community, and purpose.”
Councilmember Cindy Bass, whose 8th District includes the school where Scott’s remains were found, added that “it’s never been more important that we get our young men together.”
“There is a vulnerability that exists, and protection is needed. Protection is important,” Bass said. “What we do and how we handle our situations in our community — there’s just so much to be done.”
Childcare providers could get tax break
Targeted relief: Councilmember Isaiah Thomas last spring pushed for the city to aggressively cut the business income and receipts tax, or BIRT.
Johnson and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker ultimately went with a less aggressive schedule of tax cuts than Thomas had wanted. But the sophomore lawmaker is now trying another route to lighten the BIRT burden: cutting rates for a specific industry.
Thomas on Thursday introduced a bill that would halve BIRT’s two tax rates for childcare providers, which are facing a nationwide crisis over costs, staffing, and financial viability. The gross receipts portion of BIRT would be reduced from 0.1415% to 0.07075% for daycare owners, and the net income rate would go from 5.81% to 2.805%.
City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas wants to give daycares a tax break.
“There’s one business and one industry in the city of Philadelphia that touches every district and a lot of families, especially working families, that are struggling,” Thomas said. “This legislation is another example of us trying to think through what we can do to support businesses who support families as well as families who are in need.”
Regulatory bill sparked by Center City bike lane debate passes after arduous legislative process
Unloading over loading zones: Heated fights over legislation with narrow impact are nothing new in City Council, where limited proposals often become battlegrounds in larger disputes over issues such as gentrification or the opioid crisis.
But a bill on loading zones in parts of Center City, approved Thursday, may have set a new standard.
The bill, which was proposed by the Parker administration and carried by Johnson, will allow the mayor’s administration to add or remove loading zones in parts of Center City without new ordinances from Council.
It ultimately passed in a 16-0 vote, with Councilmember Brian O’Neill absent.
But the journey to Thursday’s vote began with the high-profile death of a cyclist, involved a lawsuit, went through two rounds of amendments limiting and expanding its scope, and ended with plans for further proposals to tweak the law.
The saga began when Johnson passed a bill making it illegal for vehicles to idle in bike lanes following the 2024 death of Barbara Friedes, who was killed while riding in a bike lane on the 1800 block of Spruce Street. Parker’s administration then adjusted loading zones in Center City streets with bike lanes, with the goal of providing spaces for residents who used the bike lanes for unloading their vehicles.
After neighbors complained the loading zones would take away a handful of parking spots, attorney George Bochetto successfully sued the city, with Common Pleas Court Judge Sierra Thomas Street this summer ruling the administration did not have the authority to promulgate loading zone regulations without Council approval.
The case led to the revelation that a 1980scity law granting that regulatory authority was somehow never officially codified, throwing into legal jeopardy hundreds of parkingregulations promulgated over the last four decades. The bill passed Thursday was intended to fix that legal conundrum by reiterating Council’s intention to grant the administration that authority.
A cyclist rides along Spruce Street.
But Johnson and Councilmember Mark Squilla, whose districts include parts of Center City, at one point amended the bill so that it applied only to loading zone regulations and to the Spruce and Pine Streets corridors, which have bike lanes. They eventually reversed course on the geography of the bill, adopting a new amendment allowing it to affect all areas of their districts included in the old law. But they maintained the part of the original amendment narrowing its scope to loading zones and not other parking rules.
Meanwhile, Councilmember Jeffery “Jay” Young Jr., whose 5th District also has a slice of Center City, removed his territory from the bill entirely.
Next, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier is expected to work with the administration to fix the regulatory black hole in University City, which is part of her 3rd District. And Johnson said Thursday he may be open to revisiting whether the administration should be given explicit statutory authority to regulate other parkingrules beyond loading zones in the affected area of his district.
“We always have an open mind,” he said.
Quotable: Honoring the late Philadelphia newspaper editor Michael Days
Glory Days: Michael Days was a longtime editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, an executive at The Inquirer, and the inaugural president of the National Association of Black Journalists-Philadelphia.
He died on Saturday in Trenton at 72 years old. Council on Thursday approved a resolution by Johnson and Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson honoring Days “for his extensive career serving Philadelphians.”
Philadelphia Daily News Editor Michael Days celebrates with the newsroom after word of the Pulitzer win.
A North Philadelphia native and devout Catholic, Days was revered as a principled reporter and editor, a mentor for young journalists of color, and a leader who helmed the Daily News when it won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.
Staff writer Ellie Rushing contributed to this article.
Philadelphia lawmakers are for the third time trying to pass legislation requiring that stores charge customers a fee for paper bags. And for the third time, it’s facing opposition from the mayor.
A City Council committee on Monday advanced legislation requiring all grocery stores, convenience shops, and other retailers in the city charge 10 cents per nonreusable bag. The goal is to update the city’s already existing ban on the plastic variety and encourage shoppers to bring their own bags.
The full Council could vote on the new legislation in the coming weeks. It is cosponsored by a majority of Council members, meaning it is likely to pass the chamber.
City Councilmember Mark Squilla, the architect of the plastic bag ban that first passed in 2019, said during the hearing Monday that he’s aiming to “change behavior.” The city says the use of paper bags has skyrocketed since the plastic bag ban took effect — studies show that while they are recyclable, unlike plastic, paper bags are still less energy efficient than reusable ones.
Squilla’s original plastic bag ban legislation included a required 15-cent fee on paper bags, but he stripped it from the bill after opposition from former Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration. In 2023, Council passed legislation to institute it, but Kenney issued a pocket veto, meaning he left office without taking action on the legislation, effectively killing it.
It wasn’t clear at the time if Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, who was the incoming mayor, would support the legislation if it were reintroduced. She made cleaning and greening the city a top campaign promise, and environmental advocates hoped she’d support efforts to reduce single-use bag reliance.
But one of Parker’s top officials testified in opposition to the legislation Monday.
Carlton Williams, the director of Parker’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives, called Squilla’s effort well-intentioned. But he said charging bag fees could disproportionately impact low-income Philadelphians experiencing high grocery costs, “especially given the current economy.” He also said the fees could push shoppers out of the city and harm mom-and-pop businesses that already operate with low margins.
Councilmember Mark Squilla takes his seat in Council chambers on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, before a scheduled committee vote. Squilla authored legislation requiring stores charge a fee for paper bags.
If the legislation passes Council, Parker could sign or veto it. She could also let it lapse into law without her signature. If she vetoed the legislation — it would be her first since taking office last year — Council could override her veto with 12 votes out of the 17-member chamber.
When the paper bag bill was introduced in 2019, members of Kenney’s administration also said at the time that they were concerned that fees on paper bags would hurt the poorest Philadelphians. Former City Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez similarly described it as akin to a regressive tax.
However, proponents of the legislation said Monday that they don’t think the argument holds up.
Maurice Sampson, the eastern Pennsylvania director of the environmental group Clean Water Action, said prices on essentials such as food could rise for everyone if stores absorb the costs of paper bags.
“There is no foundation or basis,” he said, ”in the idea that fees on bags will hurt low-income people.”
