Residents are being asked for ideas on how best to reduce city spending by nearly $1 billion

If last night’s budget workshop was a game show, it would have been called The Billion Dollar Debate. The rules were simple. First team to reach 100 points wins. To get one point all you had to do was agree on either cutting $2 million in city services, or hiking some tax for $2 million. The workshops are designed to give the City of Philadelphia guidance on what city services residents most value.

It’s Our Money blogger Ben Waxman sat in with one of the teams last night has posted this play-by-play.

The choices: My small group, like all of the others, immediately put police and fire off-limits. I understand why people are hesitant to cut public safety, but it’s hard to control the city budget when you are unwilling to cut the largest expense. Public safety accounts for one of every four dollars spent by city government. If we’re unwilling to even talk about reducing those costs, then balancing the city budget is going to be incredibly difficult.

However, people did seem to understand the need for sacrifices. For example, my group was very open to the idea of charging for trash pick-up. That idea, that was fiercely protested just a few months ago, has suddenly because one of the best of worst choices caused by the financial crisis.

If you attended last night’s budget workshop in Philadelphia, we want to know what your experience was. What did you group decide? How many points did you guys get? What departments did you cut? Why? Was there a department that was off-limits?
Please, let everyone you know who was there know we want to hear from them.

Related links:

City Paper story “The New Process: Will the budget forums be worth your time?