In addition to asking residents to accept higher taxes to help close a budget gap, Mayor Nutter will ask elected officials today to give up two of their perks.

He is expected to forward to City Council a bill that would disqualify Council members and other elected officials from participating in the controversial DROP pension program.

At the same time, the mayor has begun pleading with those officeholders in phone calls to return their city-issued vehicles.

Doing away with both perks would not save a tremendous amount of money, but residents complaining about about how the city spends money singled them out.

"I have to take it on at some point in time," Nutter said in an interview yesterday.