It's clear that Streets Dept's "Jimmy the Sweeper" will have fewer helpers

In advance of the citizen budget workshops in Philadelphia, the city has posted a much more detailed version of the budget cut scenarios. In this 80-page pdf, the city gives a better view of how a 10 percent budget cut would look like in each department.

In the power point file provided to the media yesterday, we learned that a ten percent cut would save $12.6 million dollars by laying off 110 workers.

With the more detailed department-by-department report, we can see which units within the Department will be hit. For instance, the highway maintenance division would lose 22 workers, and repair crews would be shrunk from 4 to 3 people. The city says these changes would triple the time it takes to get a pothole fixed from 24 hours to 72.

Also, under the ten percent cut, fee hikes are also spelled out. The Streets Department would begin charging 15,000 small businesses $200 to get their dumpsters emptied.

A 20 percent cut to the Streets Department would result in having 500 traffic signals around the city switched to just flash red all the time. The city says this could save the city $189,000 by using less electricity.

Also under a 20 percent cut Recycling pick up, which is now weekly, would revert back to bi-monthly.

These are just a few of the dozens of highly detailed cuts that the Streets Department would see under a smaller budget.

So, if you’re interested to see a microscopic view of the 10, 20, 30 percent budget cut scenarios that the Mayor asked from his department directors, it’s all in there.