Nutter, Council Rift Grows

From Patrick Kerkstra at the Philadelphia Inquirer:
In the three weeks since Mayor Nutter formally proposed a budget packed with tax increases, deep fault lines have opened up between him and his former colleagues on City Council.
The rupture is conspicuous in the debate over tax policy, in Council attacks on the administration's priorities, and in sometimes angry dueling over the spending by their offices. "This is the most divided Council and executive branch that I've ever seen," said Councilman Frank Rizzo, an at-large member for more than 13 years. "I've never seen a Council so geared up to snipe at an administration."
There have been public flashes of personal animosities between Council members and Nutter aides. But these are peripheral to the deep rifts between the mayor and many Council members on which taxes to raise and, to a lesser extent, which cuts to make to close the city's $1.4 billion budget deficit.
Some Council members now say they may write their own budget - one likely to favor raising the wage tax instead of property and sales taxes - and dare the mayor to veto it.
Others say the high-stakes negotiations risk running off the rails altogether.