Philadelphia Daily News’ Dave Davies says the citizen budget workshops are unlikely to give Philadelphia’s mayor a clear message on what departments to cut or whether to raise taxes. Davies, who attended last week’s budget forum held in Germantown, says the parameters are too rigid to promote creative approaches to find savings.

The game, while useful, is inevitably rigged. All the choices presented involved cutting services or gouging someone for more revenue. None involved eliminating waste or improving productivity…. The day after the second session, I asked city Finance Director Rob Dubow and Budget Director Steve Agostini if they’d heard a single original budget-balancing idea yet. Neither could name one, but said that information is still being sifted through.

Davies, says correctly that the break away working groups at the 2nd forum could not reach their goal of “balancing the budget.” Participants are asked whether to cut various city services or raise taxes to help Mayor Michael Nutter eliminate a $200 million gap between current spending levels and lower revenue levels expected in the next fiscal year. He observed very little consensus from the groups he watched and believes ultimately the mayor is left where he was in the first place, having to make big decisions himself.

If you’re curious about how things are going, you can read the moderator reports from the past workshops. These are written by folks who worked with 20-25 people trying to gauge their appetite for either making cuts and/or raising taxes.

Budget Workshop #1 Reports

Budget Workshop #2 Reports

Budget Workshop #3 Reports

What do you think: How would you restructure the workshops to make them more effective?