Mayor Nutter Gets High Marks from Philadelphians; Residents Split Over City Budget Options and Sales Tax Increase

Halfway through his four-year term as mayor, Michael Nutter continues to get generally high marks from city residents after a tough economic year dominated by a prolonged budget crisis. Fifty-three percent of Philadelphians approve of the job he is doing as mayor, compared to 32 percent who disapprove. This is an improvement since April 2009, when his job approval rating was 47 percent and disapproval was 39 percent.

But residents are divided over the wisdom of the sales tax increase enacted last year to resolve the crisis, and they remain split over whether the priority moving forward should be preserving services or holding down taxes. 

These are among the findings of a wide-ranging new poll of 1,602 residents commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts' Philadelphia Research Initiative (PRI) and conducted by Abt SRBI Public Affairs, working with Rutgers Professor Cliff Zukin.