The New York Times is running a story tonight on its website headlined “Philadelphia Mayor Plans Rise in Taxes.” Reporter Jon Hurdle quotes Mayor Michael Nutter from today’s interview on Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane saying “We can’t just cut our way out of this situation.” The story also quotes from the final report on the budget [...]

Click here to listen to the mp3 of Mayor Nutter on WHYY (how to save an mp3)
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter speaking this morning on WHYY’s Radio Times said he was surprised by the widespread support in the citizen budget workshops for boosting the city’s wage tax. Citizens opted for the tax increase in hopes of [...]

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, [...]

by Patrick Cobbs
Hundreds of Philadelphia residents crowded the St. Dominic School Auditorium in Northeast Philadelphia Thursday night for the first of four Tight Times, Tough Choices city budget workshops - Steven Pyser was a kid in a candy store.
He helped facilitate one of 12 work groups tasked with delivering plausible scenarios for cutting the city [...]

In today’s A-Section of the New York Times, reporter John Hurdle writes about the unique approach the City of Philadelphia is taking in trimming its budget. As the city faces another $1 billion budget gap over the next five years, the city is seeking public input with a series of four citizen budget workshops before [...]

As Chris explained in his preliminary report on last night’s citizen budget workshop, each group was given the task of coming up with 100 “points” worth of cuts or revenue increases in order to balance the budget. The points system was put in place to remove the confusion of + and - for cuts [...]

Prior to breaking into small groups and making decisions about how to close the city’s $200 million budget gap for next year, citizens who attended last night’s workshop got a primer in city finances from the folks who deal with them every day. Managing Director Dr. Camille Barnett, Finance Director Rob Dubow, Mayor’s Chief [...]

More than 400 Philadelphians, filling every available seat and standing two deep along the walls, took part in the first Tight Times, Tough Choices workshop Thursday night at St. Dominic’s School on Frankford Avenue in the lower Northeast.
The heart of the evening was a workshop where citizens, working in breakouts groups of 25 or so, [...]