Heard in the Hall

Philly budget relief bill headed for trouble in the House

It seems Mayor Nutter is worried that there are too few votes in the Pennsylvania House to pass his much-sought after legislation to resolve Philadelphia's budget crisis.

7 comments

Philly budget relief bill headed for trouble in the House

POSTED: Thursday, September 3, 2009, 1:32 PM

Marcia Gelbart

It seems Mayor Nutter is worried that there are too few votes in the Pennsylvania House to pass his much-sought after legislation to resolve Philadelphia's budget crisis.

The mayor has asked to meet with reporters this afternoon to explain what his staff believes are "myths" and "misinformation" being promoted about the bill.

Other evidence suggesting the legislation - House Bill 1828 - may be in trouble: It has yet to be scheduled for a vote Tuesday. "I’ve been in Harrisburg for a lot of years," said state Rep. Robert Donatucci, "and if they had the votes, we’d be notified already to come in on Tuesday and we haven’t got the call yet."

However, a spokeswoman for House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans said in a press release today that "we expect a vote on Tuesday."

The city's municipal unions, joined by state labor forces, have been actively lobbying against the bill. Besides a letter-writing campaign and visits to state lawmakers by retired police officers, a news conference is scheduled for tomorrow by Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police, District Council 47 and Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Click here for Philly.com's politics page.

7 comments

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Comments (7)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:43 PM, 09/03/2009

The city is broke. Why don't the unions get it? They will have no members if something isn't done soon. It is pathetic.

— MPM JR

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:04 PM, 09/03/2009

Absolutely MPM Jr. One can spend 15 minutes reading accounts of layoffs, unpaid furloughs, and salary and benefit freezes or reductions in major state and local governments all over the country - except here, where these dinosaurs continue to resist doing anything constructive or offering useful alternatives.

— anodyne

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:09 PM, 09/03/2009

The cut,cut,cut approach is backasswards. The decisions should be based on answering the question, "What level of services should the City provide and where to we get the money to fund them?" Almost everyone is right on coming up with a smart plan on prioritizing spending. But, Nutter is missing the revenue end. There is plenty of money out there to be collected from people/institutions that can pay their fair share. He granstanded in front of one law office to collect back monies for the TV cameras and then collection went away. He gives more property away to Penn and for-profit hospitals but then ignores what Pittsburgh does -- collect a PIOLT, a payment in lieu of taxes, for the City provided services they use like Police, Fire, Water, Street lights, etc. That's taking property off the tax rolls, collecting nothing in return and letting abuse the rest. None of this should be decided in the dead of night with no public input -- that's what the budget amendments are all about. THat, and somebody else's power/money grab so their friends get to make investment commissions off the bilion in pensions they will soon control. The pension amendments make it clear that Phill will always be responsible for pension shortfall. Just, now they won't have any control over how decisions are made or implemented. Mayor Cutter should be slowed down on this one. If ya have three or four "plans", do you really have a Plan?

— Whatwouldfranklindo

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 7:40 AM, 09/04/2009

Yo CleanupPhilly. Look at the Plan C documents. The jobs at the "Housing" and "Development" agencies aren't even funded out of the general fund. Cutting them doesn't save a single job and just forfeits federal and state funds that the city receives as an entitlement.

— Valley Twin