$47 million in budget cuts spare libraries

Mayor Nutter kept his promise to balance the 2010-11 budget with across-the-board cuts to police, fire, arts, education, and neighborhood cleanup Wednesday, but he relieved library lovers by breaking his vow to reduce branch operations.

In announcing $47 million in cuts to what is now a $3.8 billion budget, top administration officials said they were acting to contend with inadequate revenues provided in City Council's approved budget. In addition, business and real estate tax revenues continue to disappoint.

"We've tried to do our best to balance a variety of interests here," without compromising key goals of maintaining fiscal stability and public safety, Nutter said.

"These are all very complicated, delicate decisions," he said of restoring spending for libraries while reducing spending for police, the Community College of Philadelphia, and the Cultural Fund.

The cuts will involve 10 layoffs, all in the Office of Supportive Housing, which deals with homelessness.

Nutter was helped by a tax-amnesty program that netted $42 million for the city - $12 million more than anticipated. But there also was a $22 million shortfall in anticipated tax revenue for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

"We got a reprieve," said Amy Dougherty of Friends of the Free Library, a nonprofit affiliated with the Free Library. "I think the mayor wants to make good on the promise he made to the citizens of Philadelphia and to our Friends groups."

The library still faces $750,000 less in state aid, part of a 9 percent cut to libraries throughout Pennsylvania.

The outline of Nutter's plan Wednesday generally was well received by Council members as painful but balanced, though steep reductions in police overtime already are curtailing programs hailed as reducing violent crime.

"People are a bit more pleased at where we are since the amnesty money came in, versus where were at as the budget process was ending," said Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr.

After Council passed its budget in May, Nutter was frustrated that his proposed tax on sweet drinks died. He said he would need to cut $20 million simply to have a responsible budget.

At the time, Nutter said he would have to roll branch libraries back from five-day weeks to four, eliminate two fire companies, and hold off on hiring more than 200 police officers by canceling two classes at the police academy.

While restoring $2.5 million for the library was a popular decision Wednesday, police and fire union representatives criticized Nutter's additional $6.3 million cut in police overtime as unrealistic. And they said his new plan for Fire Department savings through rolling company closures instead of permanent ones is dangerous.

"Fire deaths are going to go up, injuries are going to go up," said Bill Gault, president of Local 22 of the International Association of Firefighters.

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said he already had figured reductions into his budget, which he said was being slashed $13.7 million through successive rounds of cuts.

Besides canceling two police academy classes, Ramsey said, as of Monday he had redeployed 60 officers out of special units to patrol for the summer. That will last through Oct. 9. The commissioner also said the department had cut back on Operation Pressure Point, which brings multiagency law enforcement resources to bear on high-crime areas during warm-weather weekends.

"We've made a lot of good progress over the last couple of years cutting crime and homicides in particular," Ramsey said, "but obviously we have to really squeeze out every dollar we spend."

"He is going to cut into the meat to feed the fat. There's just nowhere else to cut," said John McNesby, president of Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police.

McNesby suggested that he didn't believe the cuts were based in reality. "I think he's at the point now of just putting stuff down on paper. He doesn't make any sense."

Some of the cuts, such as Community College and the Cultural Fund, come to programs near Nutter's heart. He had promised them increased funding in his 2007 election platform.

Community College took a $1 million reduction, to $25.4 million, in its contribution from the city. Nutter's chief of staff, Clarence Armbrister, made sure to point out that is still more than $1 million above the funding level when Nutter came into office.

"The mayor has been very supportive of the college, and we understand that other city agencies have had similar reductions," president Stephen M. Curtis said in a statement.

Another program taking a hit - a reduction of more than a third of its $2.4 million budget - is the Community Land Care program, a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society initiative designed to "clean and green" vacant lots.

Supporters of the program gathered Wednesday at 15th and Gordon Streets, the site of a revamped lot, to protest the cuts. The program, residents said, had lessened the presence of rodents in overgrown bushes and discouraged waste-dumping on the refurbished plots.

"If they take this program away, it's taking us back to square one," said Peggy Butler, 61, a longtime Strawberry Mansion resident. "We have a right to live in a clean atmosphere."

The city also got some budgetary relief from $18 million in new money for fiscal 2011 from the Philadelphia Gas Works. The city-owned utility, which provides service to about 500,000 residential customers, culled those dollars from the expected sale of a building, interest earned on a sinking fund, and $1.7 million earned from an outstanding $45 million city loan.