Excerpt: After months of agonizing delays, state lawmakers yesterday gave Philadelphia the temporary sales-tax hike and two-year reprieve from pension payments Mayor Nutter had sought to plug the remaining $700 million hole in a multiyear deficit that once stood at $2.4 billion.... The other crucial pieces of the bill are pension-related. One addresses the city's immediate cash-flow crunch, permitting it to defer payments for the next two years. Those deferrals have to be paid back, with interest, beginning in 2013. Another key pension provision extends the amortization period from 20 years to 30 years, in effect spreading the city's pension burden over a longer period. Unlike earlier versions of the bill, the legislation passed yesterday does not include any statewide pension changes or cap or cut back retirement benefits for current or future Philadelphia employees.

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