October 27: House passes final budget piece | Philly nonprofits cash-strapped | NJ Blue Acres

And so it ends. The House passed the final complicated budget piece, WITF’s Katie Meyer reports. The measure significantly broadens the gaming industry, legalizing gambling at the airport, truck stops, over the internet. The state budget, four months past the due date, now just needs Governor Wolf’s evaluation and signature. 

In more money news, the financial health of Philly’s nonprofits has some grim statistics, according to a new report funded by the Philadelphia Foundation. According to the report, 25 percent of nonprofits have a month or less in cash reserves and more than 40 percent are running at a loss or producing no surplus funds at all. Author John MacIntosh said the findings should not come with “any surprise or shame,” but cautioned nonprofits and funders “not to look at the sector as a whole.”

In this week’s Present Value, Econsult Solutions gives a recap of Designing organizations: Human-centered design as a tool for organizational innovation. At the event, Natalie Nixon presented techniques to use new power values (empathy, transparency, collaboration) versus old power values (authority, exclusivity, confidentiality).

Parkmobile launched in Wilmington this week, working with roughly 1,000 meters in the city’s downtown. In Philly, Parkmobile got the MeterUP contract with PPA, after the authority shut down the program following financial issues with the previous vendor the app Pango USA.

New Jersey boosted the state’s Blue Acres program with $75 million this week, Justin Auciello writes. The home buyout program funds the demolition of homes in flood prone areas, converting susceptible properties into “vacant land that can absorb flood waters and mitigate flooding nearby.”

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