City On Track to End Year $31 Million in Red
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City On Track to End Year $31 Million in Red
Catherine Lucey
The city is on track to end the fiscal year $31 million in the hole, Budget Director Steve Agostini told City Council members during a briefing today.
Agostini attributed the downturn to a number of factors, including a decline in the city's expected wage tax revenues and a loss of state funding for social services and police. The overall deterioration was offset somewhat by better than expected revenues for the business privilege tax and the real estate transfer tax.
The budget office has already asked city departments to look for ways to cut 7.5 percent from their budgets for FY11. Agostini said some cuts may start during this fiscal year, but he did not detail what form they would take. He stressed that the city is closely reviewing every hire and expenditure to try and find savings.
Clay Armbrister, the mayor's chief of staff, stressed that the city still has financial pain ahead despite a turbulant year of budget cuts and tax hikes.
"We're not out of the woods by any means," Armbrister said.
Comment removed.
"...turbulant year..." Hello, Catherine. Learn to spell. By the way, you have to call one of those City workers who "just answer phones" to report that your house is on fire. Of course, without water (provided by Water Department workers), the firefighters would find it difficult to put out the fire.— citizen k- Just take a look at what happened when Republicans took over the Parking Authority. You think things can't get worse? They got much worse at the Parking Authority.— MikeP
- Nice spin MikeP, but the dems own this mess all by themselves.— camtheman
- Is anyone actually surprised? In the middle of contract talks...SURPRISE! We're ANOTHER 31 million in the hole. REALLY? COME ON. Year after year these democrat administrations WASTE our tax dollars and then cry poor mouth at contract time. Of course there is no money. Nutter and council wasted it with their irresponsible spending. Do you actually think the LINE DEPARTMENTS are living outside their means? Please.— Captainden
- Comment removed.
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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