With a gap in the city's five-year financial plan now more than $1 billion, Mayor Nutter today announced a sweeping plan to eliminate jobs, overtime and city services while delaying tax reductions. The budget gap -- at least $108 million for this fiscal year alone -- is the result of a downturn in the economy and loses in the city's pension fund.
Nutter, speaking in a live television broadcast just after noon, said "We will get through these tough times."
Nutter said he would not lay off police officers, fire fighters or emergency medical technicians. All city fire stations, health centers and recreation centers will stay open. His plan to measure and improve city department services through the new PhillyStat and 311 programs will also continue.
Nutter's budget plans:
- Delay business and wage tax reductions until 2015.
- Eliminate 220 existing jobs, 600 unfilled jobs and 2,000 seasonal, part-time and contract jobs.
- Reduce all overtime, including in the Philadelphia Police Department.
- Cut 200 unfilled police jobs.
- Cut five Philadelphia Fire Department engine companies and two ladder companies.
- Close 11 branches of the Philadelphia Free Library and end Sunday hours at three branches.
- Close 68 of the city's 81 pools and three of five ice rinks.
- Eliminate the Adolescent Violence Reduction Partnership.
- Cut Town Watch Integrated Services by 50 percent.
- End support for the Dell East summer concert series and the city's $355,000 contribution to the Mummer's Parade.
- Cut by half the increases proposed for this fiscal years for the budgets of the Housing Trust Fund, the Community College of Philadelphia and the Cultural Fund.
- Eliminate limited residential street cleaning, snow removal on smaller streets and dedicated collections for tree leaves and tires.
- Salary cuts for the Mayor, his staff and cabinet, deputy mayors, and the Managing Director's Office.
- Require five furlough days this year and next year for any exempt employee earning more than $50,000.
Nutter transmitted to City Council today seven pieces of legislation to enable several of his budget moves. Council Majority Leader Marian Tasco submitted them. Council President Anna Verna said the legislation has to be voted on before Council adjourns for the holidays. Council's last meeting is Dec. 11.
Comment removed.
The change we can believe in. Oh yeah...wrong guy..same story though. Promise the moon give us manure.
It's November 6th. Are you going to tell me City Council will have trouble voting on this before December 11th? What do these people do? And how difficult is it to agree to something that is needed?
the excuse the it is caused by a downturn in the economy is misleading. While bringing to a head earlier, this has been brewing in Phila. for some time. Read the state oversight commtte's reports over the last few years.
wow, that sucks. this is going to lead to more violence and poverty it seems.
Not just salary cuts, Budget cuts for Mayor and Council. That's where all of the grey area money gets spent, Aids, travel expenses, car insurance, cars, lunchions, all that cr@p.
kudos to Nutter for cutting his pay and that of his staff, cabinet, deputy mayors, etc - BUT CITY COUNCIL NEEDS THEIR PAY CUT TOO.
a few years ago, city council gave themselves huge pay increases "to bring themselves up to the same pay level as other big cities like LA". but philly wasn't functioning at the level of LA then, and it's not now.
city council, get this city growing again and THEN reward yourselves with pay increases. until then, give that money back!
This is the trickle-down effect of the Bush economics.
Well, the "change" is what Philadelphians will have left in their wallets after the Obama (and Nutter) tax policies take root. Glad I don't live in the city anymore.
Comment removed.
The brothers and Sisters are running this city. BWAH
I don't like Mayor Nutter and I disagree with closing firehouses,But everything else has to be done. I am shocked that he has the guts to do it and hopefully he can restore funding to reopen thos firehouses.This economy was wrecked by republicans and hopefully there is a silver lining in the horizon in 2009 for this city.
With all due respect to a previous poster, President Bush had nothing to do with this. A lot of us outside Philly had their standards of living improve because of Bush's tax cuts. The fact that Street/Nutter negated this with high taxes and poor management is what is causing the budget problems. One would think Nutter would be more cognizant of cutting police expenditures while at least three cops were murdered on his watch.
@ Lowell: Latrice's skirt got cut another 4 inches.
close 68 pools?where will kids go in the summer?on a90 degree day?these streets are mean,to the library?no,they are closing 11 moer of those wow someone tell me please?where is the obama excitement already gone?
This situation is eerily similar to the one encountered by Tommy Carcetti in the Wire (HBO).
I hope in this case the NIGHT is darkest before DAWN. We obviously will have to suffer to right the ship and bring back the economy and it won't happen overnight. Hopefully Nutter is doing the right thing and can get it done before too many people get restless and tear him down.
Yeah, there's $90,000 right there with her job cut.
Too funny. Good luck, Philly. I'm sure the next Democrat will fix everything.
Great idea cutting back the police deptartment. That should only help the murder rate.
Wanna save money, cut Council Members' salaries and fire idiots like Latrice.
Funny - all my posts suggesting we should have elected k-n-o-x (who was not very nice but had considerable experience improving the balance sheets dismal businesses) have mysteriously not made it to this page.
Obama will have to do similar things to get us going. Anything that is worth doing will be hard. This is hopefully an important step to make things right in the city. If you thought crawling out of massive debt was easy than you sorely mistaken, this will not be easy at all. Get ready to sacrifice some things, we can't keep living like this.
This is a shame. But Obama has NOTHING to do with it idiots.
Comment removed.
leon483 - you are clueless if you are trying to blame decades on democratic city mismanagement on the Republicans. Open your eyes.
cut latrice and keep the pools.
put rendell on a diet and plow the streets.
Stop complaining unless you a willing to vote a new council in. They are the biggest problem. We vote the same people in and then complain that nothing changes...
Stop complaining unless you a willing to vote a new council in. They are the biggest problem. We vote the same people in and then complain that nothing changes...
It's OK, people!!!! 85% of the people in Philadelphia can't read or swim, so the closing of the libraries and pools shouldn't matter too much. Dont worry though, President Barack Hussein Obama will come to the rescue soon enough!!!!!!!
Nutter has been a disappointment. I thought that he would be much more vocal, transparent, and available to citizens, but he has only been around for photo opportunities. At least Street towed a bunch of derelict cars in his early tenure before deciding to do nothing (except give taxpayer money away to rich folks for new stadiums). Funny that Nutter claims to have been a fan of "The Wire," yet he has unshaken belief in CompStat-type policing numbers and metrics. Sigh.
CHANGE!
Here's an idea...stop giving trashmen the day off on city holidays, then paying them OT on saturday to pickup what they should have picked up on Friday.
Yeah, lets close the pools, so the kids in the ghetto can get back to the business of shooting up the neighborhood instead. Delay the wage tax cuts? Sure...and there goes the recent influx on young people into the city.
This is appalling.
Is he gonna cut Latrice & Goode too??
MrsDamian: Interesting point, however I would respectfully ask you whether Mr. Knox might have been able to get Philly out of trouble. I'm not knocking his ability, it's just that he would have so much trouble with the existing regime.
He shouldn't have cut the fire dept's, police and the library's...
Bad move Nutter. You make yourself look like the normal slime politician doing this right after the election. To think I thought you were different. To think I voted for you. My apologies Philadelphia.
A deficit is a deficit...if it was your checkbook that was being balenced what would you do? Cuts have to be made somewhere. Stop complaining and suck it up! Maybe one day you will realize that the bottom line is in negative territory. That can't last forever. some day somebody will have to pay for it.
Nice...close the libraries. Delinquents can then claim that they didn't read how you're not supposed to point a loaded gun at another human being and pull the trigger.
For all of you low information people that would like to make this a racial issue, the cuts are directly related to the current republican administration. All major cities are slashing their bugets. The spending on ineffective antiterrorism programs and useless homeland security, has taken its' tool on quality of life programs and essential services. Bush successfully scared some americans into believing there is a terrorist around every corner. Now we're paying for it.
All of this is about Nutter, not Obama. Keep your focus on where it belongs and if this blows up in Nutter's face, you know what to do come next election day.
Let's be honest... this is due to decades of democratic rule in Philadelphia! To use an 'Obamaism'... Philly's chickens have come home to roost!
how about cutting the 10 year tax abatement that the city gives to the rich so that they can buy beautiful condo's, come live in the city and then they don't have to pay taxes....It just don't make sense!
when philadelphia had the chance to elect tom knox, who had a great deal of fiscal experience, they choose the same old root, people did not like him because they did not like the way he earned his money, so we decided on a mayor who had a good commercial with his young daughter, now please exlain to me, what did that choice do for us?
The pools should be offered up for sale. A private buyer would make a pool club like the one on Lombard St.
If you don't like all the cuts than I guess they should just raise the city's taxes. Oh you don't wany higher taxes? Then shut up! Pools, libraries, and fire houses don't run on magic... it takes money.
I have an idea...cut jobs at the water department. Those lazy clerks always have an attitude when I pay my waterbill in person. It's apparent that they don't want to work. Atleast fill those jobs with people who want to work. How about Family Court??? Another bunch of lazyass B***hes!!!!
I believe that Mayor Nutter is doing what he has to do to save this City. It may be unpleasant for a while, but as the economy upturns - as it will - Philadelphia will be in a better financial situation than if we keep spending at a rate reflecting the now diminished tax base and accrueing an unsurmountable deficit. Thank God we have a Mayor with the will to do the right thing regardless of the politcal risk. Economics 101 is if you only have $100 in you pocket, don't spend $105. I wish the Mayor all the best. BTW, I am a Republican.
How does the headline of this blog post jive with the third paragraph:
"Nutter said he would not lay off police officers, fire fighters or emergency medical technicians. All city fire stations, health centers and recreation centers will stay open. His plan to measure and improve city department services through the new PhillyStat and 311 programs will also continue."
LoL. Perfectly timed for after the election. At any rate, good to see a Democrat cutting spending. Everyone has to contribute. Now all he needs to do is bring in private sector jobs...but that will be a challenge in this economy. Brace yourself, sociological changes are a comin'!!!
I'm surprised that people aren't wondering how we have a $568 million property tax debt owed to the city. You can't blame the GOP for that, friends. That's just the locals not collecting the property taxes. Isn't it better that everyone pay their fair share rather than cutting street cleaning and bulk trash? These are public health matters. Why is Nutter going John Street when he has more options? Here's the city's own data: http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary
pHILA 1 - Tom Knox is a client at our firm and believe me i know that with him in office the rich will get richer and the poor even more poor. He's got megabucks and could careless about the lil guy.
We have to collect property taxes from the Top 100 Property Tax Delinquents. These are all entities that can either 1. pay up or 2 tolerate the sale of the property with no ill effect. http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/topdelinquents/mailingaddress
Wow and I thought Barack Obama's election was going to solve all of our problems.
Does Latrice lose her job? Our city is rife with waste and overstaffing due to patronage. I agree with other posters that closing pools and libraries is just wrong. come up with alternatives to saving money - is PGW still forking over their $18 million a year and, if not, why???? NO to police cuts - they need all the help they can get. AND end the DROP program for city council and executive staff. I don't care if they plow my street when it snows - never have and in 1996 we shoveled ourselves out - just make sure we are safe (police) and sound (youth programs). It's not going to be pretty or easy, but bravo, Mike Nutter for taking steps to end the gravy train!
This is the “change” I knew was coming….When will people learn that they say whatever will get them elected.
Great point cleanupphilly!
Nutter has been good for the reputation of this City. He now needs to go further to get us out of this Bush recession. Ask all civil servants to take one day a year in voluntary unpaid furlough for the good of the city.
Tom Knox is a guy who made his money providing drug and alcohol insurance coverage at a time when local insurers simply stayed away. Knox saw the need to provide it, knew that the government would cover in most cases, and many good employers, and knew that he simply had to provide basic low cost good care, and did. He'd have been a great mayor because he uses technology to cut costs, instead of just hanging on to the old way of doing things, terrified of change.
Thanks, MSTEE. I just wish I understood why the city is so far behind on going after the largest tax delinquents who can pay, while concentrating on going after the people who live in their houses and owe relatively little. Look at www.phillysheriff.com. Those addresses getting sold are in poor neighborhoods, but the top deadbeats are favored. Why? Is this the new day, the new way?
It's time to crack down on all the people living in the city, but using alternate mailing addresses to avoid paying city wage tax. I imagine the lost taxes would amount to millions.
marykate, you are out of your mind... if they cut the ten year tax abatement not one of these "rich people" would have moved into the city and you would have lost on millions in income tax.
well maybe obama will spend less on the war and more on domestic programs, such as those which the city can apply to for funding for things like pools, libraries, etc.
We all knew it was coming to this. The socialist state in Philly, with tons of subsidized housing, subsidized health care, ridiculous union contacts and huge penions...it's all unsustainable.
How is nutter getting the blame here, for dealing with a bad situation that he inherited? JOHN STREET should be held accountable, he did more harm than good by about 100x.
What ever happened to cracking down on people who live in the city but have Delaware and other out of state tags to save on insurance huh??? I see alot of that.
Hi Dave - I hardly think anyone (short of God him or herself) will fix Philly 100%, but Knox had a far better shot of balancing the budget for 3 big reasons 1) A refreshing lack of diplomacy or political correctness (which, frankly, cost him the election). He doesn't give a spit what people think of him personally and has a bare-knuckles straightforward nature that intimidates many. His wealth pretty much guarantees that he won't be bought out by anyone on the local scene...so we could have counted on him to knock heads and fire the moochers.
2) An incredible knack for numbers. He trimmed the fat on more big companies that I can count and turned around failing businesses to make them profitable. The city is...well...a business, right?
3)Not much of a political future. At almost 70, whatever office he gets (now he's running for governor, I think), is likely to be his last. With no further political ambitions, he doesn't have to kiss tookis to get ahead, unlike the younger ones.
So he's great with budgets, not beholden, and at his age...considering he's already accomplished everything else...probably wants to leave a good legacy. I don't know what we were all thinking.
City Council is so anti-property tax collection and reassessment, it makes no sense. Why not foreclose on the properties under the control of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, #76 (SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEV. 19107-3323-100) that owe $189,536.93 on 40 properties? These are properties that had probably low cost loans and the people defaulted years ago. They're empty houses, seized by HUD, and they are not paying property taxes. The city can foreclose and collect on the taxes faster than HUD will resolve it, so let's do that. That actually provides low cost housing. City Council has to just be able to have an open mind to solutions that get them what they claim to be trying to do in the first place. Here's more example of where we can put property back into the tax paying pipeline: http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/topdelinquents/mailingaddress
SMH @ people blaming Obama. He hasn't even taken office yet. You can thank both Bush Administration and John Street for this mess.
theKing....are you kidding me, in 10 years these suburban people will be long gone, they will grow tired of the crime ridden city, take 10 years and run, sounds like a good deal to me.
You can also check phila.gov's website for information on what cleanupphilly mentioned.
So remove pools kids can swim in, close libraries they can read in, and do away with their programs that help them manage their anger. Soudns like a home run to me, or are we just really trying to increase those murder totals year over year. I grew up in Philadelphia, love it with my heart, but tough times are surely ahead. God bless.
Dennis Seaman
hey drummerwinslow can you take 5 min. and just educate me as to how this has anything to do with Bush economics.
Oh yeah...I completely agree with those who insinuated Knox is a total jerkstore tool(no argument there!) but I don't want to have tea with the guy. I just wanted him to clean out these moocher-plagued so-called "city" departments. At this point I'll gladly rank budget experience over that warm n fuzzy feel. Knox is cold, but with him in place maybe we could actually afford to buy a cushy blanket. :-) j/k
DID YOU REALLY THINK WE WERE NOT GOING TO HAVE TO GIVE THINGS UP TO GET OUT OF DEBT??!? Do you really think that Nutter is making this unpopular move thinking that it won't end up helping our economy? That would be political suicide! He needs to make cuts and unlike other politicians, he is willing to make sacrifices. I applaud his efforts and hope that he is right because we do actually need change.
he had to do what he had to do..it was either that or raise taxes! i applaud him for his bold moves, he didnt have a choice. everywhere is experiencing this, why would philly be excused? i have faith in him to make the right decisions for the city. Those kids who dont have a place to swim this summer......go read a book! or take a cold shower, either way, everywhere around the world the same thing is happening, lets not complain about it, lets accept it and move on.
Marykate you are dead wrong! First of all, I thank the suburbanite's for transforming alot of area's in South Philly into what it should be. Somewhere to be proud and raise a family. They have managed to get rid of 95% of the bad element that ruined those area's in the first place.
Maybe if he got all of the CWT money from all of the city people that use fake suburban addresses he would eliminate the defic.
Chrissmith is exactly right. We can't afford all theses "housing" and "redevelopment" agencies, then pay private nonprofits who are politically generous but redundant to do the same thing. We can't have PHA not paying property taxes. Even the HUD agreed, making the requirement that new PHA development must pay property taxes. PHA's resopnse? Don't pay 'em! The result? PHA is #20 on the list of Top 100 property tax deadbeats in the city. (PHILADELPHIA HOUSING AUTHORITY, zip code 19103-3014-12, owes $522,802.56 on 97 properties). This game of chicken has to end, and it has to end with PHA paying up. Ditto other agencies, like Catholic Charities, which loses it's tax exempt status if the building is no longer used for the purpose which gained the tax exemption. Philly Archdio., use it or lose it. Selling this property is likely the best solution for Philly Arch. of the Catholic Church. The stuff will move if you list it, it just takes longer. The point is who is going to be tough enough to stand up to Rigali and say, hey, here's the certified letter setting your court date to foreclose for nonpayment. Being mayor takes stones. Does Nutter have the guts?
Nutter and Council have to call PHA's bluff and start proceedings.
Comment removed.
A significant segment of city revenue is devoted to paying the interest due for municipal bonds. This is known as "debt service". Perhaps the mayor could form a "refinance task force" charged with marketing new low-interest bond sales that would replace the current portfolio of higher-interest bond debt. Payoff the 6% bond-debt with revenue accrued from selling 3% bonds. If sovereign wealth funds consider municipal bonds to be a safer investment than volatile stocks and commodities, they may be eager to buy low-interest municipal bonds. There may be a market for low-interest Philadelphia long-term municipal bonds. The benefit to taxpayers is a lower cost of annual interest payments in the city budget.
Hey CleanupPhilly - when will you run for office so I can vote for you?
Comment removed.
Oh please!!! Tom Knox will get in office and make life sweeter gor all his cronies and the rest of us will be up the creek trust!!!!
Good job by Nutter, trim the fat. Next should be that councilman's assistant who makes 80k a year for making Goode feel good.
Comment removed.
MrsDamian you read my mind! I was thinking the same exact thing!
How many housing or redevelopment agencies occur on the Top 100 Property Tax Delinquent List? A lot. Some more than once for different projects. This is just bad management. It has nothing to do with Bush, except that Bush stopped writing blank checks. Obama is not going to reignite the practice of blank check writing either. Bad local management, not auditing, not holding builders accountable, this is reason for this. This is the reason for the failed Kenny Gamble tax delinquent stuff, for the tax delinquent stuff that is on the RDA lists, for the PAID tax delinquent stuff, and the other "housing" and "redevelopment" stuff that never got finished. The city has no choice but to send all this stuff to sheriff sale pronto. No more excuses. Shutting libraries and not sweeping streets to let these guys coast along for one more year is bad management, and its from Democrats. That's why the paper won't cover the story either.
Did he sing Rappers Delight?
Comment removed.
I'm told I'm a bad Democrat for taking this data, that the papers seem not to notice, and saying, hey fellow Dems, we can't keep ignoring that these guys are not paying property taxes because they are big dogs and give money and votes to Democrats. I'm saying let's do the right thing and get right with Jesus, and for that I'm told I'm a right winger. What office could I run for? Dog catcher? Not even the papers will cover the story of who is getting let off the hook for not paying property taxes.
"End support for the Dell East summer concert series and the city's $355,000 contribution to the Mummer's Parade." Looks seperate but equal to me.
utleyrules how old are you 12??? Not all democratic mayors in this city were bad. I'll tell you that if a certain mayor were still alive today all this crime we have in this city would not occur.
Overturn the 10 year tax abatement on million dollar homes and condos being built in the city.
Its a shame that cuts have to be made and especially to the libraries and pools which benefits kids but can anybody on this blog come up with a fiscal plan that would be better.
You critics on here kill me like you have the answers to it all and so all Nutter has to do is call you and you can solve the city's problem. Armchair Mayors................
Comment removed.
don't worry, no cuts to the thousands gaming the welfare system. the people supporting these parasites will have to foot the bill, as usual.
We really do have to collect the overdue property taxes and create a climate where people really do know that they are expected to pay or that they will lose their property promptly. That's how the counties do it. I thought the papers would cover this story before the big debt crisis saga hit, since it was obvious it was coming, and I thought they would start the debate of how best to do it so that it is as fair as possible. To be fair, shouldn't we collect the oldest debt first? The biggest debts, shouldn't those go to sheriff sale first? Shouldn't private citizens be able to request property tax collection without having the owner stop the sale on nuisance properties, properties that are falling down? Drug houses? Right now, people can stop the sale of a property just because they can claim, rightly or wrongly, that they are "inheriting" it. This is how you get drug houses. The dealers claim they are inheriting this property they have no claim to, then live there. For years. Look at the CERDO at www.phillysheriff.com. The CERDO, or Cert. of Residential Occupancy to request stopping a sheriff sale for back taxes is NOT just for residential occupancy. It's for any house that the owner of record, or even someone not on the deed to stop the sale because they claim they are inheriting the property. This has to stop. This has to be completely reworked. Council has to wake up, or they'll preside over their own demises. You have to let collections proceed on properties that are just empty. Common sense.
dream on, the city is no place to raise a kid, years ago it was but not today.
Here's the solution: http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary
yeah if they can afford million dollar homes, let them pay the taxes too. I can see maybe giving them a year or two, just to rope them into the city, but come 10 years. You have got to be kidding.
Then we have to have full market value reassessment, and Council has to act to make it revenue neutral. But theres' the rub: Council plus action.
That's what you get for voting democrats in year after year after year after year in Philly......
So he is going to close the libraries and cut the police force. Sounds like this city is going down faster and faster each day.
We have to cut the pork, and the Cultural Fund, the Housing Trust Fund, these are all just pork, honestly. Look at who gets these things. We can't completely cut bulk trash pick up and street cleaning, two fundamentals of city service, the reason we pay taxes, in order to fund la-la programs like the Cultural Fund and the Housing Trust Fund. How many agencies devoted to housing can one city have? We have dozens. Dozens. OHCD, the RDA, all these low performing agencies with squishy benchmarks, that they miss all time need to be cut. They set their own benchmarks themselves and miss them by a mile. Come on. Cut them. They're almost entirely useless. Seriously. For result cost per dollar unit, they are immeasurably bad.
It's McCain's fault and Bush too! If they would have just declared Philadelphia the City of Brotherly Welfare everything would be good. The Northeast wouldn't be losing be getting clobbered by the Nutter cuts. Good thing Obama will be in office soon to pay our mortgages and maybe he'll pay our property taxes and the Philly budget will be balanced. Nutter should just hire all of us make us part of some union and then tell Obama he has to help pay for our health coverage and pay us a pension we don't deserve. Can't wait for Obama to walk on the Delaware River and feed everyone...WE WANT A BAILOUT TOO!!!
When is the paper going to do an investigative piece on some of these wifty agencies like OHCD, or the RDA? They are cost heavy, and results lite.
the reason why he did this after the election is because of the questions that were on the ballot. ONE he now has control of Fairmount Park which he is combining with the PDR and now eliminating the services. TWO he also has the ability to take out a loan the balance the rest of the budget. This has nothing to do wit the Presidential election, instead it is the local referendums that are now in play
We can't just nullify property tax abatements and ignore that we are not collecting property taxes that are genuinely years, even a decade, overdue. http://www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary
Marykate what are you the philly.com hall monitor. who are you to say where or why someone would want to raise there kids here??? If you hate it so much don't let the door hit you on the way out....
philalifefan- you are a joke you are the same dude who was drunk out of his mind last week at the parade and now u want to critize like you have all the answers. YOU GIVE US A 5-10 STEP PLAN AS TO HOW THE CITY CAN GET OF THIS SURPLUS AND NOT CUT THINGS.........
U CAN SAY CUT CITY COUNCIL SALARIES BUT IF THE BUDGET IS LIKE 850 MILLION IN THR REARS YOU GONNA HAVE TO DO MORE THAN THAT SO ARMCHAIR MAYOR THE TIME IS YOURS..........
Where are the salary cuts for City Council?
Can you hear that? It's the sound of more people packing up and heading out to the suburbs. Looks like the city will drop to #7 on the list of most populous citie before you know it. Well, at least we are World Phu@#ing Champions!!
Now u other re-publicants kill me yes the deficit is bad but BUsh has the whole country in the rears and guess what he is a REPUBLICAN so now Mayor Nutter and PRESIDENT OBAMA are going to have to help to solve this. Instead of critizing them for troubles they did not cause you should hold judgement and watch to see how good of a job they do in righting this ship........
Most of you cant even balance your checkbooks but yet the mayor and new president catch heat for nothing they caused.
If all of your are as smart as you claim, you should run for mayor or city council and get us out of this jam but no u blog while in your cubicle like you have a PHD from Harvard......
ARMCHAIR MAYORS AND ACCOUNTANTS.............
What do you guys think of this: We have to stop the practice of assessing a property less when no one lives there. Those properties need the highest assessments to spur the owner to sell or rehab the property. Right now, the run down properties on my block pay the least, and that kills equity, further driving down potential revenue to the city. Come on BRT. Get smart. You can't let the bad owners pay hundreds of dollars less just because they let their properties fall apart in order to pay less in taxes.
Hello Marykate. How are you?
I have to be totally honest: the people in the South Philly zip codes need to be paying way more. The people who pay the least in all the zip codes of South Philly are way below any reasonable expectation of property tax to value. It varies so widely from within the block that it's completely unreasonable and out of date. The city cheats itself doing this. The taxes should be more equalized within a block, since houses are more similar then they are different. What is Nutter going to do about the BRT? How did that not get mentioned? Full market value? No mention of that? Come on. We're not idiots.
Rhyanj, I'm saying the mayor has to aggressively collect overdue property taxes, and thus far, he's avoided doing this. He's been in office a year. He's also avoided letting the BRT put full market value in place, and like I say, he's been mayor for a year. You can't blame the republicans for that. That responsibility is squarely on his shoulders, and on our Council's. We have to hold them accountable to go after the money in a way that is genuinely fair, and already in place legally. Collect. Sheriff sale. Reassessments. It's time.
Take notice these cuts are gonna hurt the middle class & poor,while the rich the city is trying to attract basically goes unscathed?
I see that alot of the comments here are referring to Obama's change. This has nothing to do with Obama. These are clearly local issues and have been for quite some time. Give it up already, Obama won whether you like it or not.
LittleGirlBlue you answer you own question. Cities want to attract people who pay for things, ie their taxes. If 60% do not pay their real estate taxes oh well, tax them somehow else or cut their services so they move. CA has plenty of openings with the same issues.
Comment removed.
That was ridiculous what I heard, there was no rappers delight this time!
That is sad...
These are bad times....I am fortunate enough that I still have a job and a nice home....for now.....others are not so fortunate...........................but for the grace of god there go you or I....
ILUVPHILLYCITYOFWINNERS!!!!!!!
Comment removed.
cheers to Nutter and his staff for taking the paycuts.
Dow down over 400 points! Awesome! Guess everyone is happy about the change that is coming! Who ho hhohohohohohhohohohohh thug life, free handouts, here we go people!
ILUVPHILLYCITYOFLOSERS 6.1% unemployment is slightly above the historical average of a 1/2%. Inflation is over 4% below historical average by 3/4%. Home ownerhship is at the highest point every at 71% soon to loss 2%. For 25 years home ownership went from 48% to 71%. The economy grow from 17 trillion to 85 trillion. If your were a good saver, you reaped what you sowed.
I think the Obama comments are referring to the local campaigners pointing to the need to resurrect social program funding that languished during the Bush years, but that cannot possibly be put back. Welfare reform is here to stay, housing money and redevelopment money is not going to be there for large cities with large property debt that they can collect. But promises were made during the campaign, and I heard people saying things that I thought were not fundable promises with the US debt being $10,000 billion, equivalent to 80% of the current US economy. Obama is not going to be able to do this stuff in a first administration. We all knew it, and I think people feel that McCain avoided the pie-in-the-sky stuff and lost the election. The reality is that Philly is on its own. We can afford to be, however, if we just do what NYC does, and other cities. Collect property taxes, assess them on real values, not try to be all things to all people, but offer the basics at a good value, like street cleaning, like plowing, bulk trash removal for a fee, the basics. We can't be the health care center, the rec center, the easy job resource, the landlord, the builder of low cost housing, the free gas and water company, the pay your taxes when you can advocate, etc.
We have to still cut the wage tax as scheduled, or we'll lose potential employers who can just go anywhere else. That means less in wage tax revenue. We can't keep relying on taxes that are decreasing in revenue production as we speak. How stupid is most of City Council?
Well, this is one heck of a catch-22. For decades, there's been a mass exodus from the city and a major problem retaining students after they graduate from Drexel, Penn, Temple, etc. shrinking the tax base. The tax base is smaller and in a small income bracket, and now to make up for the shortfall they have to make the city less hospitable and appealing. I applaud Nutter for doing what Street didn't have the courage to do, but the outlook is pretty bleak for this city.
CLEANUPPHILLY-if u run for any office, let me know I will gladly help you out, You need to be in City council....
Comment removed.
Pools, libraries?
How about each one his staffers reduce their salary by 30k?
How about we stop the city vehicles from the fleet to be driven at night and on weekends?
How about we return to GM the mayor's two new hybrid suvs.....does he really need 2?
These budget cuts are cowardly in the worst way.....how can we remove services that will affect the youth the most?
Before any of these cuts take place, you first cut out Mr. Goode Jr.'s assistant/lap partner's inflated salary.
Where will kids go when the rec centers and libraries close? Styraight to the street corner hangouts, where drug pushers and street gangs are waiting for them. Cuts in police and in violence reduction efforts fall in line with the problem. Watch out next year for the big spike in shootings and killings. BTW, did City Council lose any of its budget in these cuts?
the library cuts don't seem to be a big deal. the pools on the other hand...maybe we can sell off the municpial services building its inhabitants.
I'm not sure how this has anything to do with Obama since Nutter wanted Clinton for president.
I hope Nutter keeps cutting. The city is rotten to the core and needs to be cleaned out. Also the Dow is down because the corporations know that the handouts from the gov't are about to be over. Dems give out private welfare, Repubs give out corporate welfare and someone like myself gets screwed by them both.
Latrice was given a desk job...UNDER THE DESK!
I wonder if one of the fire houses closed will be in the mayors neighborhood? it would be better to put the tax up.. The price of fire insurance will go up if you close too amny fire houses.
It is just so easy to blame the republicans isnt it. Street did this and Palosi, in the 2 yrs the Dems have been in cotrol of the house all S@#$% hit the fan. The Dems have ahd the city for yrs and the down slide has been going on for the last 10 yrs. Mis-management is the blame political self induldged Rep and Dem thieves did this..
You all wanted change now you got it.... It is only going to get worse.why dont they take those over priced car from the council make them pay there own car ins cut there public funds for persoanl use. it is all hitting the fan now and "WE THE PEOLE ARE THE 1'S WHO WILL PAY"
Comment removed.
I hope they close FoxChase pool, I don't want all that scum coming up here to use this pool. I can rent my pool in my back yard to the city.
Comment removed.
These kinds of cuts, while painful, are responsible fiscal governance. It takes courage to do what Mayor Nutter did, and instead of complaining about it, you should be applauding his good sense. These cuts will keep taxes from rising, and help the city to operate soundly. You guys are never satisfied...
How much was the Mayor's staff salary cuts? What percentage?
How much was the Mayor's staff salary cuts? What percentage?
pa2...don't get worked up. It's not going to be long before they all realize that it was the dems. They have no one they can blame anymore. This is going to get worse now...
Mob town mob rules - I was told by a fire person not to drive on my street or he and his mob would flip my truck with me in it - I think the place needs to grow up some and fast - we should have elected a business man to the mayor's job... and just wait and see what OB will do - much the same for he has the same exp. and the same problems...
Income taxes in NYC going up 15%, Governor Terminator raising California taxes by $4.4 billion. Are these people democrats? I think not. Attack Nutter and Obama if you want, but it sounds really stupid.
Comment removed.
As a cost saving measure, let's eliminate the at-large council members - 7 members plus staff and vehicles, etc.
utleyrules you are a dope. What does the DOW have to do with Obama being President? Nothing. This economy was screwed up by that "C" student Bush and corporate greed, and we are finally paying for it. But Obama was the better choice without a doubt. McCain and Palin were two "C" students who thought the fundementals of our economy were strong. DOPES....
154 comments | View All By Latest | Paginate Comments
About Chris Brennan and Catherine Lucey
Share your tips
|
Catherine Lucey luceyc@phillynews.com |
Chris Brennan brennac@phillynews.com |
- Attytood
- Philly Gossip
- Philebrity
- Philadelphia Will Do
- The Next Mayor
- Heard in the Hall
- The Daily Examiner
- Phawker
- Suburban Guerilla
- Young Philly Politics
- Hallwatch
- PoliticsPa
- Philly Blog
- The City Room
- Politico
- Drudge Report
- The Huffington Post
- Wonkette
- Eschaton
- Daily Kos
- Choose Judges on Merit
- Blogorrhea
Blog Roll
Get it now
- November
- October
- September
- August
- July
- June
- May
- April
- March
- February
- January
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
Archives
- Budget
- City Council
- City Hall
- DC
- Haikus
- Nutter
- Rendell
- Statehouse
Categories
Philly.com Promotions
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
Site Services:
Classifieds:
- Jobs | Cars | Real Estate | Rentals | Marketplace | Celebrations
Partners:
