By Tom Ferrick
The good thing about the budget crisis is that it gives the city a chance to re-examine its priorities and ask hard questions. One of them is: Is this program really necessary?
Mayor Michael Nutter asked that question earlier and came up with some interesting answers: No to all the city’s swimming pools, [...]

By Tom Ferrick
(Part 5 of 5)
The city’s pension fund keeps eating up more and more of the city budget - and it is no surprise why. The city’s system is a defined benefit plan. Pensions are determined by a formula that takes into account years of service, final salary and a multiplier. The multiplier varies [...]

By Tom Ferrick
(part 4 of 5)
There is a simple way for the city to save a lot of money on its health insurance costs, which total about $400 million a year.
Each of the city’s major unions, plus its non-unionized work force, have separate health and welfare funds. If you combined them into one fund and [...]

By Tom Ferrick
(part 3 of 5)
To understate the case, the city has not been successful over the years at getting its labor unions to make concessions on wages, work rules and fringe benefits.
Union leaders are not elected to give up their members’ hard-earned rights and benefits.
Confronted with this resistance, the city has often resorted instead [...]

By Tom Ferrick
(Part 2 of 5)
Mayor Nutter likes to talk about making political alliances outside the city. Well, here is an opportunity for him to join other local officials across the state to press for a change in the way county courts are funded.
For 22 years, the state of Pennsylvania has been living under a state [...]

By Tom Ferrick
(part 1 of 5)
The city’s budget woes are beginning to sound like an ad for an oriental rug store: Save 10! 20! 30 percent or more!
Only in this case it is cut 10, 20, 30 percent! At least that was the directive of Mayor Nutter to his department heads the other in [...]