Budget Man

The City of Philadelphia is facing a projected $1billion budget gap over the next five years. The mayor and his top budget team have sought out public input over the past couple of months and presented the administration’s budget proposal to city council. One man who has been in the middle of all of this is the City’s Budget Director Steve Agostini. We invited him to our studios to sit down and talk with WHYY’s Chris Satullo about the drafting of the mayor’s budget and what happens with it next, now that it is in the hands of 17 council members.

Issues discussed include: Union concessions, Opposition in City Council, Input from Budget Workshops, Wage Tax vs. Real Estate Tax, Cutbacks planned in the Mayor’s Office.

You can listen to the full interview, which we’ve broken into two parts, here:

PART 1 with Steve Agostini

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PART 2 with Steve Agostini

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Or, if you want to download both parts of the interview and listen to them on your fancy i-doohickeys and .mp3 gadgets, just right click on this link for part one and this link for part two. Choose “Save Link As” and download away.