Bill reforming Philadelphia’s DROP retirement incentive to be introduced by end of May

Philadelphia City Council is moving forward to reform the early retirement incentive known as DROP.

Council President Anna Verna said a bill changing DROP is expected to be ready before the end of the month.

“It is our hope that we will be presenting an ordinance on May 26 and hopefully we will have our public hearing scheduled by June 6th,” said Verna.

Councilman Curtis Jones said the purpose is to redo the DROP program so it won’t cost the city money.

“We want to make it at least revenue neutral. That’s a laudable goal that everyone can agree on,” Jones said.

Councilman Jim Kenney said the whole DROP program should be scrapped.  “This current law we have has been so vilified and so twisted that we need to get rid of it in it’s entirety and start all over if we are going to do something for the city employees,” he said.

The Nutter administration is renewing its call for completely eliminating DROP, which it said costs the city an extra $260 million.