As Mayor Nutter made the rounds in Harrisburg Tuesday, continuing his lobbying campaign in support of the city $3.8 billion budget plan, he is being trailed.
Al Schmidt, the Republican candidate for City Controller, has been shadowing Nutter with stops of his own, to argue that Nutter and City Council have not made enough cuts in the city budget before coming to Harrisburg to ask for favors. Nutter is asking the the legislature for changes to the pension plan and the authority to increase the sales tax from 7 percent to 8 percent. Nutter's budget also calls for a two-year delay in contributions to the pension plan -- essentially a loan -- that also requires legislative approval.
"This is no different than borrowing money to pay operating expenses with a promise to pay back with future tax revenue," Schmidt said in a Power Point presentation made to Senate Leaders including Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, (R., Delaware), Majority Whip Jane Orie (R., Allegheny), and Sen. John Rafferty (R., Montgomery). "This is NOT good government."
Schmidt, who is a long-shot to unseat Democratic incumbent Controller Alan Butkovitz in November, said he wanted to provide a counterpoint to Nutter and the Democrats' penchant for spending and raising taxes while destabilizing the already shaky pension fund. "All we’re asking is to let Philadelphia live by the same rules as every other county," Schmidt wrote in his presentation. "City flat-out spends too much money."
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It doesn't matter what party you belong to, you have to come to the same conclusion as Schmidt -- the City flat-out spends too much money. There's no base to pay for what the city is paying for now. There won't be for some time. Look how long it took for the US to fully climb out of the Depression. Council and the Dems just want to "wait this one out" and continue on as before, but they just won't face that they can't.— CleanupPhilly- There's a lot the city should have done that it didn't do before it came to Harrisburg. Council should have passed AVI, should have removed the BRT from the School District budget, should have improved collections of the half billion in overdue property taxes, should have ended DROP, should have given up their cars, should have legislatively fixed the $1 billion owed in forfeit bail, and should have passed a smaller property tax increase, maybe 3% over two years, as a show of good faith that they have done all they could. Council should have made both small and large gestures to show that they are serious about cuts, collections, and correct assessments. They dropped the ball on every single issue, over, and over, and over. I imagine Nutter is getting treated pretty contemptuously, even by his own party, and it's not really his fault. Schmidt doesn't have to shadow him for that.— CleanupPhilly
- There's a lot the City has done and a lot more it can do over the next few years, BUT IT CANNOT DO IT IMMEDIATELY!! THE BUDGET NEEDS TO BE DONE NOW. YOU CANNOT UNDO DECADES OF INEFFICIENCY AND BAD PRACTICE IN A SPLIT SECOND.— Philly Phorever
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