Nutter renews call for quick aid; Pileggi says no

Mayor Nutter's fate these days doesn't seem to rest in his hands alone.

As he stood yesterday near a Northeast Philadelphia police building, reiterating the massive police layoffs the state might force upon him, there was no sign of relief from Harrisburg as Pennsylvania's budget standoff dragged on.

The Republican leader of the Senate, Dominic Pileggi of Delaware County, said yesterday that he had told Nutter that the state must come to agreement on a 2010 budget before considering Philadelphia's requests.

It was unlikely, he said, that what he called the "Philadelphia bailout legislation" would be considered separately from the overall budget.

"The issues are intertwined," Pileggi said yesterday, adding that one of the the central disputes in negotiations involves hundreds of millions in education funding, "a disproportionate amount of which would go to Philadelphia's school district."

"There are other spending items that are Philadelphia-centric as well, so it's difficult to separate those from the relief Philadelphia is requesting," he said.

Those city requests include two elements key to the budget City Council approved last month: a one-cent increase in the city sales tax and a two-year delay in payments to the city pension fund. The Nutter administration has also asked Harrisburg to approve structural changes to the fund.

Without the state's consent, Nutter said, he will be forced to make $700 million in spending cuts in the next five years - cuts that would include the elimination of 3,000 city jobs, nearly a third of them in the Police Department. The cuts, part of the administration's "Plan C," also would have about 200 firefighters lose their jobs.

"Such a reduction would seriously impact the great services that are delivered," Nutter said at a news conference in front of the Second and 15th Police Districts building, at Harbison Avenue and Levick Street.

Referring to a 10 percent drop in the homicide rate this year over last, and a 31 percent drop compared with two years ago, the mayor said: "The progress in the gains we made are fragile, and are literally at risk."

The news conference followed a rally the mayor held in the City Hall courtyard Thursday, when he detailed some of the consequences of inaction by the General Assembly. Besides the job cuts, Nutter said, all recreation centers and library branches would close, some fire stations would be shut, and trash would be picked up just twice a month.

Yesterday, he also noted the "added impact" of the job cuts in Northeast Philadelphia, home to nearly 60 percent of the city's police officers and firefighters.

The union leaders representing those city workers - John McNesby of Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police and Bill Gault of Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters - have voiced support for Nutter's agenda.

"I'm going to every politician, lawmaker, and community group I know and tell them about Plan C and tell them how devastating it is. That's my job right now," Gault said.

City Councilman Brian J. O'Neill, a Republican who represents most of the city's Northeast neighborhoods, was vacationing in Maine but sent an aide in his stead. Joan L. Krajewski, the Democratic councilwoman from the immediate area, was ill but said later yesterday that she had not known the event had been rescheduled. Originally planned for Sunday, the news conference was postponed because of a storm.

Also absent was State Rep. Michael P. McGeehan, a Democrat whose district includes the police building. He did not return a call yesterday.

Nutter's spokesman said news conferences in other neighborhoods were planned.

"All of us are working hard day and night to convince [Harrisburg] to give us the approval we need to work out our own problems," he said.

The House and Senate could soon be able to vote on the city's items, since separate legislation has been introduced in each chamber. However, Pileggi yesterday rejected that scenario - unhappy news for Nutter.

"The budget does not have to happen before" a vote on the city's requests, Nutter said. "That's a choice legislators make."

And the longer it takes for a state budget to be passed, the further along Philadelphia will be in implementing Plan C. That includes the distribution of layoff notices.

The city's financial monitor, the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, approved the city's five-year budget plan two weeks ago but said it would consider the plan rejected if the state had not acted on the city items by Aug. 15.

In that case, PICA gave the city 15 additional days to submit a new five-year budget plan, which would require Council members to formally meet to take action.

Toward that end, Council has scheduled three special sessions: Aug. 18, for the introduction of a budget amendment; Aug. 25, for a hearing on the amendment; and Aug. 31, for a final vote on the legislation.