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Friday, September 11, 2009
PICA Delays Plan C Vote

The Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority just delayed a vote on the city's Plan C budget for another week, expressing hope that state lawmakers would by then provide the city with budget relief.

Plan C is the budget the city will have to enact if state lawmakers don't grant Philadelphia permission to temporarily hike the sales tax and delay some pension payments -- moves worth $700 million over five years. The city would deal with losing the revenue by slashing 3,000 jobs, closing libraries and recreation centers and eliminating funding for the local courts. Without state action, those cuts would take effect Oct. 2.

The state House of Representatives is set to vote today on House Bill 1828, which would provide Philadelphia with the requested relief. From there the legislation -- which has been bogged down by the addition of pension reform amendments -- must go back to the state Senate for approval.

The state-established budget oversight agency was set to vote on Plan C today. But instead, they approved a different budget plan -- Plan B -- which is similar to the original budget and assumes the city will get the state aid. Still, if the state has not acted by Sept. 18, then the city must resubmit Plan C with revisons by Sept. 25.

The revisions would likely have to be on courts funding. PICA Chairman Jim Eisenhower stressed that he thought eliminating funding for the First Judicial District, District Attorney and Defenders Association was "untenable."

Posted by Catherine Lucey @ 1:14 PM  Permalink | 10 comments
Comments   
Posted 01:47 PM, 09/11/2009
CleanupPhilly
Is it accurate to say it was "bogged down?" It was always going going to undergo the same process as every bill, especially one including unions and a budget. Those take all year. There's no way Philly can enforce a rush request.
Posted 01:50 PM, 09/11/2009
CleanupPhilly
So is Plan C still implemented effective Sept. 15? It doesn't seem like the Plan C to be submitted on Sept. 25 will be anything but more harsh now that the court costs have to be taken from somewhere else.
Posted 01:51 PM, 09/11/2009
CleanupPhilly
Is it safe to say that layoff notifications and closures are on schedule as previously announced?
Posted 02:46 PM, 09/11/2009
CleanupPhilly
KYW just announced that the Historical Commission is to close like the Planning Commission. This is what I was afraid of -- the meat of local government will be cut to keep the fat -- the patronage offices, the political hires, the frankly redundant social programs -- all to preserve votes in a machine style government. The press has decided to take a back seat in recommending sensible cuts first. Just being anti- is not enough.
Posted 05:56 PM, 09/11/2009
CCcomment
Dear "CleanupPhilly" I have seen you on these discussion threads many times advocating that Plan C should essentially be implemented by cutting what you call "fat" from the city budget. Today you have asked that the press come up with areas of the city budget that qualify for such cuts. But that's not something that the press usually does. You have a highly outspoken commenter on this issue- could you please tell us what jobs, departments, or programs you would like to eliminate. No vague generalities, please (things like "fat" "waste" or "patronnage" are abstractions that don't really mean anything). So what should be cut? Who's job? What program? Tell us what you think Philadelphia should do?
Posted 07:23 AM, 09/12/2009
Philly Phorever
Cleanup - if you have real ideas for cutting government appropriately, why don't you share them with the Mayor, Managing Director, and Finance Director or at least share them publicly on this or some other forum? Sure, there's waste in any large bureaucratic organization like the City...Mayor Nutter and his team have already cut about $2 billion in the budget over the next five years...positions, contracts, etc.
Posted 12:47 PM, 09/12/2009
larlib
cleanup instead of your generalities tell us where is all this supposed fat what libraries rec centers health centers firehouses trash collection where and what do you want the Mayor to do where is the fat give some ideas or get a job
Posted 01:00 AM, 09/13/2009
newtowest
larib, how about for starters we cut the Mayors Office of Sustainability which Nutter created,if you can't pay your bills I wouldn't worry about going green. How about the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and his office, which Nutter created. He has a police commissioner, fire commissioner and a prisons commissioner all whom report to the Managing Director under the city charter. I believe he also created a board or office in order to encourage people to hire ex-cons. Nice idea and most of them deserve a chance but not something that is vital to the day to day operation. 311 was a stupid idea from the start, every department has a contact number and we still have the city hall switch board, (686-1776), which is just a catchy as 311 and won't be confused with 911. Instead of creating a whole new department how about enhancing the current customer service people. Cut a few of them and we can probably keep some libraries and rec centers open. The biggest problem he has is that he cannot control the court systems cost or really control the budgets of the other elected city officials such as council, sheriff, register of wills and clerk of quarter sessions. He should sue the state over court costs. it may take awhile but since they pay for every other county they will probably end up paying for ours. The only way to take care of the other budgets is to vote current elected officials out of office. It took us years to get this way it is not an overnight fix.
Posted 11:52 AM, 09/13/2009
uandwhosearmy
newtowest has the right ideas, anyone with common sense, common lgebra knowledge and knows how to balance their check books and household expenses can do this...budgeting. Its what responsible people do everyday who earn their own money and pay their own way and are responsbile for their debts. I would add find duplicate supervisory/managerial positions and cut them, trimming redundancy cane done. They should have started charging at the rec centers to begin with...Mural Arts? find private funds. Too many offices and health centers...ever go to a health center? Redundancy. Takes time and leadershsip, but alas we are unfortunately without any here.
Posted 03:53 PM, 09/13/2009
bevgrey
We don't have the City Hall switchboard anymore - 311 replaced it and their hours have been severely curtailed. We do need something like it for the people who were calling 911 to complain about a leaky fire plug or a pothole (yes, there are such fools) and tying up the lines. As I mentioned elsewhere, we need to get rid of the 14 new deputy mayors and their staffs. If we functioned without them for 300 years, we can probably do so now. I want to know why Nutter thinks it is more important to gut the pension system and break longstanding promises than it is to go after the huge amounts of money corporations and delinquent taxpayers owe (98% of whom are NOT city workers, for all you folks with a vendetta against us). He and Street and Rendell have let this situation build for the past decade and a half, and they all use the unions as their scapegoats to cover up their lack of action and real reform of the way the City is run. I am very glad to see all of you posting such workable ideas of what can be done, but very depressed at the idea that Nutter and his crew will ignore any such suggestions and keep on hammering at the idea that the city workers need to give up the pensions they were promised and have factored into their retirement plans instead. The unions are more than willing to work with him and have suggested several cost-cutting plans more than once, but he continues to ignore them. The man came in as such a clear-minded, sensible person and he is the most dangerous mayor we have had in years.
10 comments
About Chris Brennan and Catherine Lucey
PhillyClout
Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.

Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002. Since then she has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. For the past two years, she covered the 2007 mayoral election. Now that the battle is over, she has moved down to the City Hall bureau where she will report on the Nutter administration.
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Catherine Lucey
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