It's Our City is a project that uses TV, Radio and Web
to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Phila Budget Scenarios Released
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 10:22 pm - by Chris Satullo. Filed under: Budget.
Last night, Mayor Nutter and his team briefed members of City Council on the options for closing a new, $200 million budget gap in next year’s city budget.
Use this link ….. to view the powerpoint Nutter showed to Council members at the 5 p.m. meeting, no doubt spoiling any appetite they might have been working up for dinner.
Many of the options are coyote ugly: lay off or don’t fill 929 police positions; lay off 163 firefighters and close five engine or ladder companies; close 10 library branches while limiting hours at the others; lose 284 shelter beds.
And those, alas, are only examples of the damage that would be, done by 10 percent cuts in departmental budgets. And, by themselves, without tax or fee increases, these scary steps wouldn’t enough to close the budget hole, Nutter’s fiscal brainiacs estimate.
The data also include portraits of the devastation wreaked by 20 percent and 30 percent cuts in budgets.
But here’s a key point being missed in the clamor:
The mayor’s report — contrary to the erroneous clamor being raised by municipal unions seeking to discredit the civic engagement being done around this budget crisis — does list a number of ways to increase city revenues, to soften the impact of service cuts.
A raise in every tax the city levies - including wage, property, business, parking and amusement taxes - gets put on the table as a step toward closing the budget hole. So are a few ideas for new fees, such as a “pay as you throw” fee that would charge people based on the amount of trash they put. It might cost the average household 60 bucks a year, but it would go a long way to softening other cuts, by raising revenues at a rate of $106 million per year.
It’s important to understand that everything you’ll see in this powerpoint is just an option; the Nutter administration has made no final decisions on any of them, and probably has no desire at all to see some of the more draconian cuts done.
The taxpaying, service-using public will have four chances to weigh in on all these options in a set of citizen workshops sponsored by the Penn Project for Civic Engagement and WHYY.
This first will be held Thursday at St. Dominic’s School, 8510 Frankford Ave. Registration begins at 6 p.m., the workshop begins at 7 p.m. But come early because seats are limited. Input will be taken in three forms: citizens can talk through and vote on the options together in workshop sessions; they can offer two-minute videotape testimonies (cameras provided); and they can post comments or suggestions on a community “wailing wall.”
All input will be conveyed to the Nutter budget makers, who will introduce a proposed city budget March 19. The workshop sponsors will ask the mayor to explain publicly how the citizen input was used and reflected in his eventual budget proposal.
The other three workshops will be:
Wed., Feb. 18, Mastery Charter School, Pickett Campus, 5700 Wayne Ave.
Thurs., Feb. 19, St. Monica’s School, 16th and Porter streets.
Mon., Feb. 23, Pinn Memorial Baptist Church, 2251 N. 54th St.
For more information on how the workshops will be conducted, and for background on the sponsoring organization, go to www.gse.upenn.edu/ppce.
Related link:
PDF version of the Mayor’s budget presentation to city council
February 10th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
“pay as you throw” fee that would charge people based on the amount of trash they put.
This is an ntersting idea in theory- but I fear implementing it would be difficult - I predict people would start putting trash on neighbor’s curbs or anywhere but their own curb where it belongs to avoid paying the fee.
I woudn’t mind it too much - but in my house we recycle and compost so that our 3 person household only creates 1 bag of trash every 2 weeks.
February 11th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Seems to me that the mayor is playing a little bit of politics here… he’s suggesting some pretty hefty layoffs. Is there an unspoken message to the unions — That is: (1) help the city re-work the health and retirement benefits; or (2) force us to put your membership out of work???
February 13th, 2009 at 7:27 am
I attended last night’s forum. I was very happy to help serve my city. I found it amazing that with some citizens very well informed in certain areas, we came up with explanations to certain cuts that were just not apparent from the program and were able to make MUCH more informed decisions.
I was disapointed in a few things though:
1) Volunteerism was not presented
2) The stress was on cuts and very little creativity was given towards revenues. If each revenue area were given to the soul searching the spending departments gave, a whole new light might be shed. I personally think revenues properly collected would probably alleviate this whole budget problem. Go to a Sheriff Sale - you’ll see what I mean. There are thousands that for some reason don’t get there and are delinquent year after year. Properties should be considered abandoned after taxes not paid for six months and should be at auctioned immediately at 1 year not paid in full. Let someone who will care for that building have it. We’d have alot lower O/D balances on the books, a whole lot less crackhouses and a lot better looking neighborhoods - that all leads to better cash flow.
3) The cuts were in some cases were nebulous or not well laid out and took citizens in the know to point them out.
4) Obvious things like collecting money due to us were considered to hard to do (ie the states are supposed to pay us for courts and would be a full ONE-HALF of what we need) and basically off the table or not even mentioned, Back taxes/water, uncollected fines or PILOT for example.
5) The cuts were not well covered enough to state that some will cost more than they save due to greater inefficiency or shift to more expensive solutions.
OK so, I’ve complained - here’s my solutions:
A) Please RAISE my propety taxes by $120/yr ($10/month) to help pay for the schools failing all around me and leaving my neighborhood to the mercy of the thugs this situation creates and don’t cut the services, I think some cuts will cost us more than they save.
B) I think all of us should be doing some volunteer work - how’s about helping the libraries, rec centers, parks, schools or do some of the clerical work this city is in such dire need of - Heck, I’ll even help with collections or labor hours to get that ball rolling. Mayor Nutter, please put together a volunteer mentor program so we can do this - most of us really want to help.
C) There are still huge inefficiencies due to the “silo” effect between different departments. Here’s my latest; sherriff’s dept and revenue don’t communicate well, I get bills (or none at all) on auctioned properties purchased which are from previous to sale and been working on this over a YEAR! I’d be happy to analyze and help create a more reasonable interaction model.
D) Citizens’ City Savings Bond Shares in denominations $100 and below.