Sim City players can alter department budgets and raise taxes to control spending

Round one of Sim City: Philadelphia begins tonight at 7:00pm in North East Philadelphia. More than 200 residents are expected to turn out at St. Dominic’s School 8510 Frankford Ave for the budget workshop. Once there, people will work in groups of 20-25 to find ways to reduce city spending by $200 million in the next fiscal year.

The city has already released a detailed list of budget cut scenarios and possible tax hikes but participants tonight will work from a simplified form. If you are planning to go, you might want to consider looking over the city’s scenarios because when you get in the groups there won’t be a lot of time to discuss what each department does, and what exactly would be cut.

Also, we plan to have three camcorders to tape anyone who thinks they have a bright idea of solving the city’s budget shortfall. We’ll give you exactly two minutes to make your case and then the camera will be turned off.  If you’re a little camera shy, we will have a “wailing wall” where you can write down your budget balancing suggestions on a 4″x6″ sticky note.  Both the videos and notes will be shown to city budget officials.

The workshops are being run by the Penn Project for Civic Engagement at the request of the City of Philadelphia.  No tax dollars are being used for these events. WHYY is helping organize the workshops and It’s Our City will be providing coverage of the workshops.

Related links:

FAQ’s on budget workshops