Temple University has agreed to rethink a meal plan cost increase that they say was in response to Philadelphia's soda tax.
Philly.com reports Temple's board of trustees approved a 6 percent hike for meal plan costs for the 2017-18 school year Tuesday. University officials said that the beverage tax was responsible for 4.8 percent of the increase.
Temple walked the move back after being criticized by the mayor's office. Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for Mayor Kenney, said raising meal plan fees was being used to cover soaring construction and administrative costs instead of offsetting the beverage tax.
Temple announced that they support the tax-supported preschool funding initiative in a statement Wednesday. A spokesman added that the university will review calculations for meal plan increases before moving forward. [[238427591, C]]
