Stephen Agostini was on WHYY's Radio Times this morning discussing the budget cuts

The City of Philadelphia Budget Director Stephen Agostini told WHYY’s Radio Times this morning that he believes the economy will continue to contract for the next six to nine months, and that’s only if a federal rescue plan works. He says using economic models suggest the downturn will be long and deep. When asked whether Philadelphia should have seen this coming, the budget director said everyone was surprised by the breadth and speed in which the economy tanked. He said the city used a conservative estimate that the business privilege tax would grow in fiscal 2009 by just under one percent. He says the realilty is that the tax dropped nine-percent. This is just one of the reasons the City of Philadelphia projects tax revenues will be about one-billion dolars less than hoped for over the next five years.

Here is an Mp3 of today’s full hour with Stephen Agostini on Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane.