who gives and who gets? what did decisions are now being taken in city hall. the beverage city gives. and overs get. >> jim candy has made his priority known. and now the budget ball is in council's court. >> you'll be supporting it? >> we'll see. >> good morning. telemundo is the fastest growing station in philadelphia. the mayor layed out his budget

last week. that's up about 2% from last year. we'll review some of the big issues in this budget. a three cent tax on sodas, body cameras for police officers, and how universal prek is the key to fighting crime. nbc dives into the mayor's first budget. >> the mayor pitched what he called an ambitious and radical budgets. and it's getting push back on a soda tax. >> big soda isn't thrilled about it at all. >> the crowd sitting above council chambers loved the idea of a soda tax. it would fund community schools and other programs. at one point the mayor stopped to acknowledge the loud support. >> is that my mother up there? >> a newly formed coalition against the tax says not so fast. >> we're concerned about a loss

of jobs for one thing. this is a tax which is going to be passed on to the distri distributors. we think they'll pass it onto the consumers. >> it's a wish list that depends on a $0.03 tax on sugary drinks. it's been struck down twice before under mayor nutter. now that the money is earmarked for specific programs may give it a fighting chance. >> i think this soda tax is clearly designated for a very specific purpose, a purpose that gives broad base support. >> nbc 10 news. >> after the mayor introduced the budget i sat down for an up close discussion for his priorities as the budget moves forward. thank you for being here. welcome here. >> nice to see you. >> it's great to have you. we have a lot to talk about today. some say that this week's budget speech and the budget itself is aggressive and radical.

how would you define it? >> aggressive and radical. we need to do something different than what we've been doing. we've been nibbling around the edges of education and infrastructure improvement and nibbling around the issues of community schools. we believe that these three particular initiatives will change the dynamic and narrative of education in our city. the state legislature has not funded the philadelphia school system in the state as well as it should. we are putting $400 million of new money into the schools this budget. and we need to get children ready, three and four-year-olds ready for kindergarten and first grade. >> you said it's an early investment. >> i was at a pre-k up in northwest philadelphia today. anywhere from six months old to five years old. these kids were bright. they were engaged. they were gun and -- fun and joyful. they were inquisitive and open armed. you can see the sponge of their

brains absorbing everything. if we don't start that process at three years old, they're not reading on dwrad level and they're going to fail. >> you've been talking about it. it's one of the biggest issues of your campaign, now you're in a position to make it a reality. >> it's nice to try to keep your campaign promises and this is one promise we're going to keep. that and coupled with community schools which is bringing social social security services into the school base so kids don't have -- the kids don't have to go to three different bus stops to get the services they need. you can't learn if you're hungry or cold. you can't see the white board or the blackboard, you can't learn. if you have dental problems, there's a lot of distractions in the kid's life. we need to deal with it. >> it is a costly program. >> we expect $256 million over four -- five years in pre-k.

we're looking at probably 10 million a year in community schools. and we're looking to borrow $300 million in a bond issue, about multiple bond issues and leverage another 200 to 300 million in philanthropy and foundation money to renovate every rec city and park and lie briar brar in our city. >> you mentioned infrastructure in your budget. going back to pre-k which is very important, are there any programs that you consider priorities to actually send this funding to this program? >> we're -- the school district will not run this program. this will be run through the city itself. we have a couple of different levels. we're trying to expand the level of slots that exist in existing neighborhoods preks who get the three and four star rating from the state.

we'll do it in the back of the office to get them up to 3 or 4 star pre-k. we're going to look to expand to existing school facilities with existing space everywhere we can find where it makes sense in neighborhoods that are experiencing high poverty and crime and unemployment and all those things that are affecting, impacting the lives of our kids. in the end, if we don't get them at three or four, we're going to take care of them when they're 18 and they go to the county prison at $38,000 a year. >> there's a serious financial situation in the cities. we need to develop the funds to pay for this. the soda tax, for example. please explain how it works. >> it's a three cent per ounce tax on sugar sweetened beverages. if it's diet soda or water or some other beverage without water, they're not taxed.

it's the sugar sweetened soda. we expect to raise enough to fund the programs we're talking about, in addition putting $26 million of new money in our pension, and helping get an initiative off the ground to create 10,000 new jobs in the green economy. >> do you think it will be enough. >> >> if we get three cents and ounce, it will be plenty. >> there's concern. for example, some cigarette taxes in 2004 were implemented. it only generated about 20 million less that be expected. do you fear something like that could happen? >> first of all, the cigarette tax, it took a dip in the beginning, but it's leveling off. sad to say, people are still smoking. the liquor tax is a better example. it's a 10% tax. at the time of the passed the world was coming to an end. restaurants were going to close. the world was going to be out of business. no jobs, and actually the restaurant and bar city in our city has taken off and exploded

in success. the liquor tax argument that was made for that now is being applied to the sugar sweetened beverage argument. neither of them are true. >> some people in some positions feel that this might be sort of like a reverse tax on people who aren't poor. who are paying more when they go to the store and buy their sodas. do you feel that that could impact the community? >> let's look at the reality of it. the beverage industry made about $65 billion gross profits last year. 11 million in net profits. and where do they advertise the most? african american and latino and poor neighborhoods. they are pedaling this stuff in poor neighborhoods as is. my view is if we tax it, the additional money will stay in the neighborhood to create pre-k community schools and improve every park recreation center and

library in the city. >> the tax has been proposed before twice. it's been slapped down by the city council twice. how do you plan to get around it? >> first of all, when the mayor proposed the tax in the past, there was no specific initiative. there's really no attractive o projec projects. the difference is now there are 10 district council people with rec centers and libraries in their districts that they want refurbished. there's a strong movement in this city for pre-k programs. people believe it will work and will lobby. they'll be my lobbyists. my lobbyists are the parks and rec people, the community school advocates and moms, and the bob. >> we'll have more with the philadelphia mayor when we come back.

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as we continue with our exclusive one on one discussion with the philadelphia mayor, jim kenney. >> let's talk about the relationship with city council. you're going to need the support of city council to get this accomplished. and in the past mayor nutter had a distance relationship. >> he didn't try to have a relationship with city council. i left city council after 23 years and tried to work every day at maintaining the relationship that i have with my former colleagues. my former colleagues and the new colleagues that have come in. the former administration never understood that you need to build relationships with people when you ask them to do hard things or before, and this relationship building goes on every day. my deputy mayor for legislative affairs, intergovernmentfal affairs worked with them on a

regular basis. we are responsive to council members and their needs. under the former administration, everything had to go through him. that's why everything got bogged down. >> you've made an effort yourself during your speech with the budget, you extended a hand of friendship. >> i've always had a hand of friendship for any council colleagues. i recognized the things they care about and have accomplished. it's not all centered on the mayor. the mayor is an important position. i call it the kind of point guard on the basketball court where you're running the plays and making the passes and assisting everybody, but the council members are the board of directors of your company. you need to respond to what they think is important. you develop a relationship and move forward together. >> along with that personally, what can you do? you know all of them -- some of them. personally, what can you go do to create a more conciliatory -- >> we have a very good

relationship right now. i've met with every council member at least once, sometimes as many as three times. we discuss and have ideas back and forth and collaborate. our folks respond to their needs and their requests. i think the relationship between the mayor and council right now is as good as it was or better than before. >> talk a little bit about the funds that you want to go to the police department, security, our communities in the past, for example, you your companion promised to end stop and frisk. you have to revise it and not eliminate. >> you're not going to eliminate it. god forbid you leave and a man holds you up and takes your money and wallet and he's wearing a fliers hat. you call 9-1-1 and tell them the features is a fliers hat. five minutes later the police

see a guy fitting that description. you told them on the phone he has a gun. would you expect the officers not to frisk that man? the issue is stopping someone randomly on the street based on a profile, stopping him with no 9-1-1 call, a lot of our bad stops did not result as a 9-1-1 call. it resulted in just a fishing expedition, looking for whatever, and trying to stop people, question them and frisk them without a service call being made. you certainly would think that if you describe that person with a fliers hat as your assailant and he had a gun, they would keep themselves safe and try to make an arrest. >> right. how would you change the culture? what would you expect the leader of the police department to do, the philosophy? >> we have changed the culture. we have appointed commissioner richard ross, a great policing

advocate. it's about training and recruitment and explaining to officers that they are in service to the public, and that people need to be respected. we need to expand our ability to have a more diverse department. for example, the latino representation in the police department is really a bad low. it's about 13%. it should be much higher. there are no latino police captains in the force. we're going to work hard to change that. you have to have a police force that reflects the diversity of the community, and then you have to hire people and train people to show people respect. policing is a hard job, and sometimes you're going to have to arrest somebody, and sadly, sometimes you'll have to shoot somebody. if that's the case and the circumstances call for it. the overt respect dealing with a citizen is important in setting the context in which you have an interaction. if you come at someone --

>> good day. this is a special report. we have confirmed the death of former first lady, nancy reagan. she was 94 years old. from hollywood to the white house, and beyond, nancy reagan and her husband, former president ronald reagan were side by side on the adventure of a lifetime. nbc lightly news anchor, lester holt takes a look back at her life and legacy. >> nancy davis was an access herself when she met ronald reagan in 1949. he was already a star. but though she had her own hollywood dreams, she later said she found her greatest role as his wife. >> i think i was born to be married. i was the happiest girl in the world when i became we. >> they married in 1952. a simple ceremony, and even appeared together in held cats of a navy, the last of her 11 films. >> i began to think you were

seeing the circus. >> you knew better. >> how could i know? did you give me a post dated check? >> from then on by her own description, her life was devoted to her husband. as mother to their two children, patty and ron, and a stepmother to his two children by former wife, jane wiemen. then came politics and her long career as a first a lady. first in california to governor ronald reagan in 1966. >> what's his greatest asset for the women voters in. >> my. the same ronnie , i guess. >> and then to president reagan in 1980. after the president was shot by a would be assassin just two months into his first term, his wife was forever shaken. >> every time he went out and talked to thousands of people, my heart stopped. >> reporter: but she carried on, steadfast in her chosen roles at

the president's protector, best friend and partner in efforts like the anti-drug campaign for which she was forever linked. >> when it comes to drugs and alcohol, just say no. >> reporter: she was criticized dubbed queen nancy for her expensive tastes and fashion and accused of managing her husband. but the fact is, she never waivered as a loving wife in all the ways she knew, and when in the mid 90s the then former president revealed he'd been diagnosed the alzheimers, the partner who would rarely leave his side, shared her family's pain at the republican national convention and a new cause. >> we learned as too many other families have learned of the terrible pain and loneliness that must be endured as each day brings another reminder of this very long good-bye. >> so nancy, let me say thank

you for all you do, thank you for your love, and thank you for just being you. >> reporter: she stayed close to heron her ronnie in her last years. she was at the library and visited her husband's resting place. a love story to the very end. lester holt, nbc news. >> i want to bring in andrea mitchel who is joining us by phone. andrea, i think lester said it best. it was an epic love story between them. >> it was an extraordinary love story, and we should also say i'm covered -- i'm flooded with a flood of memories. she was i think the most consequential first lady i can imagine in modern history. for all of her early missteps and for the press criticism of luxury and designer gowns and designer china and white house expenses during a recession in

1982, she became throughout the first term and then the second term, the most important advisor who pushed and moved the president in very significant ways toward conversations and discussions with gorbachev at the first geneva sum it. this is a president who said they could not talk to them because the soviet leaders kept dying on him. and then she was the one who saw the opening, saw the possibility, and framed all of those summit conversations in the social moments despite her antipathy to the other gorbachev. she played the role behind the scenes without losing the touch that endeared her to him, of course, and e vemplly to the

nation. she was a very important political advisor and figure all along the way, even from his first election when she led to the firing of many of his top staff members. she brought in jim baker and others who were not hard line conservatives, who were willing to compromise. there are so many echoes that we see in our current campaigns. she loved gossip. she loved fun. i got to know her after her years in the white house. went to the reagan library, spoke there and talked to her on the phone recently. i spoke to her when margaret thatcher died. she was very frail and didn't want to go out in public. she was unable to move around very easily, but she remained plugged in until almost the very end. and was an extraordinary impact figure in american political and social life. >> i think there are those who would suggest she was also his number one protector. if anybody went after him, you had to go through nancy to get to him.

>> and, in fact, that led to the firing of the white house chief of staff, memorably she went around the president, and vice president bush had to detell do regan he was fired for hanging up on the first lady. hanging up in anger against the first lady. but she brought people in. she brought in democrats, the late robert strous, former head of the democratic party and ambassador to russia to the soviet union then. she brought in all sorts of figures to talk and better inform the president so he was not isolated in the white house. and she protected him, perhaps excessively from too much travel after his first pretty much well-viewed as disastrous trip to europe in 1982 when he was overscheduled and barely got through a three country day, ending in a state dinner after

starting out in rome and meeting with the pope. but the fact is that she in keeping his travel schedule, preserved his presidency in realizing that he needed more time, that for him to go to china, he needed to first go to hawaii for a few days and ak la mate and then go to gaum and see the troops. she managed to organize the white house, and she was feared by the white house staff. all of those trips to an a br barbara, people dreaded getting that duty. there was no buffer between you and the calls from the first lady. it was all in the interest of her husband and his presidency. and i have to say, finally, that that book that came out with the love letters to nancy after his death, his writing, his diary reflected a person of incredible intelligence and insight, a beautiful writer, and it

contradicted all of the other assumptions about ronald reagan and his forgetfulness, which would have been early signs of the alzheimers. the fact that that love affair and his intelligence and his devotion to her are what we really remember, and finally, also, her fighting for research for alzheimers, for going against the conservative party grain, even the sitting president. she really fought for health for scientific research. she was the first person who finally staeered her husband toward thinking differently about aids after ignoring the scourge. she really opened ronald reagan up to new ideas. and i think it's because of her as well as his good instincts that it became a successful presidency. >> andrea, i'll ask you to stay

with us. it's 55 past the hour of 11 in new york. we have news we share with you with a heavy heart. the passing of nancy reagan at the age of 94. we are told she died in her home in california. we do not know more circumstances than that. she was in frail health in later years, and had not been seen in public for some time. but an dree ya, as we continue with you, i think the phrase just say no became snon houynon with her. she coined the phrase to talk about her battle against drug and alcohol addiction, not her specifically, but she so supported that for people. that was her legacy within the white house. i mean, that she took on with great passion. >> that was also part of the -- it was part of a recalculation that she had to do something important because of all the terrible publicity in the first few years. so one of the three top advisors

in the white house, michael came up with that strategy to tackle what was becoming a major drug problem in the country, and she did it very effectively. she did it by reaching out to her hollywood friends and others. it was very well produced as a public service campaign, and she threw herself into it and just say no, just say no to drugs became her theme of those years in the first term of her presidency. that said, i think eventually the most consequential contribution will be in foreign policy. because it was she who really encouraged her husband to begin talking with what was then the leader of the soviet union after he had been unable to because of the elderly difficult stage of

gorbach gorbachev's predecessors. that led to the end of the soviet empire along with the military deployments and the rest of the reagan doctrine, that led to the end of the cold war, and the end of in 1989, the berlin wall coming down and all the other developments that transformed europe and the world. >> and in steering away from international politics with you, she was a style icon, probably the first of great merit since jacqueline kennedy, though, of course, jacqueline kennedy during her years, she would wear designers and make their careers and people looked to her as a reflection of the ultimate during her era in the white house. >> that's true. many designers. she paid a price for that, especially because the country was suffering with high unemployment in 1982, and a real recession, and she eventually

reclaimed her -- i would say her popularity to a certain extent not only through just say no but with the washington press she came to a traditional event which has been going on for over one hundred years. there were skits, and she has first lady showed up to the surprise of all the washington journalists who she had disdained, she showed up dressed as a char woman in raggedy clothes and sang a show tune from, i guess it was a barbara streisand movie. she did a bang up job of that and won over the press corps. >> she was an access before she became the first lady. >> right. >> some of our stations may go back to regular programming. for others, our coverage continues.

i'm alex witt. former first lady nancy reagan as died. nancy davis reagan, former first lady of the yooups, died this morning at her home in los angeles at the age of 94. the cause of death was coesveeart failure. mrs. reagan will be buried at the ronald reagresintl library in simmy valley, california. let's go to presidential stoan chaewho joins me on thephon michael, we have