I've been wrestling with the Mayor's new budget for a few days now. One thing I've figured out; it's not right to think about it in terms of what should reasonably be expected from Michael Nutter. In that framework I might be relatively pleased; when he was a Council member he worked hard to abolish the Business Privilege Tax in toto; now he proposes abolishing "only" the Gross Receipts part. Furthermore, he proposes to cut the rate of the Net Income portion of the BPT just 7%. Neither the Gross Receipts abolition, nor the Net Income cut is immediate; they would both be phased in over a period of years. And Nutter is also proposing an immediate 25% increase in the Parking Tax -- a relatively progressive tax -- which will make up a substantial part of the lost BPT revenue.

So as someone who thinks cutting business taxes should be a very low priority, if one at all, I could feel OK about all this compared to what might have been.

But personalizing the budget proposal is the wrong approach. The important question is not how to grade Nutter. The important question is this: are the choices the Mayor made in the budget the right ones for our City? My answer to that has got to be no.