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 [...]

Check out Ben Waxman’s op-ed in today’s Daily News about the citizen budget workshops.  His take on it: Philadelphians have shown a remarkable capacity to try and learn the ins and outs of something as esoteric as the city budget and that, combined with the city’s willingness to participate, has been remarkable.
My questions:
Will the “revolution” [...]

The fourth and final citizen budget forum will be held tonight at 7 p.m. at Pinn Memorial Baptist Church, 2251 N. 54th Street in Philadelphia. Registration begins at 6 p.m. Citizens are being asked for their input as the city is faced with a $200 million budget gap for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
This [...]

By Tom Ferrick
The bankruptcy of Philadelphia Media Holdings, announced late Sunday, isn’t a surprise. The company had already missed several payments on its $390-million debt owed to several banks. All newspapers generally have been hit hard by the downturn in advertising that has come with the recession.
What is a surprise - at least to me [...]

Philadelphia Media Holdings, the parent company of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday. Both papers will continue to be published, according to Brian Tierney, one of the papers’ co-owners.  Tierney, who along with a team of investors bought the two papers in 2006 for $562 million dollars, [...]

The 3rd of 4 budget workshops was held in South Philadelphia at St. Monica’s Catholic School on Feb 19. More than 400 people turned out to help in their chance to help shape the City of Philadelphia’s next budget. They have been asked to help reduce city spending and/or raise revenues to close a projected [...]

Philadelphia’s embattled social services agency, Department of Human Services, has sped up visits to children age five and younger. That is one of the findings of the Community Oversight Board report released this afternoon .The report said the following:
DHS has fully implemented an Expedited Response (ER) program that provides a 0–2 hour response time for [...]

The citizens at the 2nd citizens budget workshop had a lot to say. More than 450 people turned out at Mastery Charter School in Germantown to give Philadelphia’s mayor advice on his upcoming budget. The city has to eliminate a projected $200 million budget gap in next year’s budget.  One of the ways citizens expressed [...]

By Corey Abramson

The City of Philadelphia (much like the nation as a whole) is in the midst of a financial crisis. Currently, we are looking at another $1 billion dollar deficit over the next five years.
The way the Philadelphia fiscal plan works is helpful in some regards, and a bit overcomplicated in others. Years back, [...]

St. Monica’s Catholic School, in shouting distance of the unique Girard Estates in South Philadelphia, was the scene of the third Tight Times, Tough Choices budget workshop, where a standing-room-only crowd of citizens, working in breakout groups of 20 or so, grappled with a list of potential service cuts and tax increases being considered by [...]