Editorial: Is city flush again?
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Editorial: Is city flush again?
An IOM editorial from the Daily News:
IS THE CITY nearing the its of our long fiscal nightmare? As Mayor Nutter puts the finishing touches on the final budget of his first term, city revenues finally appear to be stabilizing. That's a big change from the past few years, when the national recession caused tax collections to fall off a cliff.
According to a monthly update from the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authorit (PICA), the city has collected more than $1 billion in tax revenue in the past seven months. That's an increase of 11.3 percent since the previous fiscal year. About half of that is because of last year's sales-tax hike, but collections for the wage tax and real-estate transfer tax showed growth as well.
For the past three years, the budget crisis has meant that city government has basically been stuck in survival mode. We're looking forward to seeing Nutter's plan for governing when the budget has stabilized.
The increase in tax revenue also means that the prolonged recession might finally be ending, meaning businesses will start hiring again and the thousands of Philadelphians who are unemployed can get back to work. More than anything Nutter's budget can do, that's the key to Philadelphia's economic recovery.
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Maybe they can now afford to keep the DROP program.
Bring back residential street cleaning! All those leaves and trash in the gutters of neighborhoods attract rats and rodents. Sweep it up!— campmisty- Where is the deep fiscal analysis? Doesn't anyone remember the sales tax is temporary, and without reform and cost cutting measures we are still on a sinking ship?— btruth
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- Isn't it just amazing that the city is flush again in an Election year? Do you find that curious Ben Waxman? Did you ask the Mayor that question? I am still waiting for your response to my last post under the blog post about Nutter cutting off budget talks with the public.— Serpico
- Serpico: Sorry that I didn't reply to your earlier question. I actually am going to write a blog post to address your second point in the near future. It's true that the budget is in good shape during an election year, but that's not entirely up to the Mayor. The budget is doing better because the economy is doing better. That's a pattern that's repeating itself all over....Just look at Harrisburg, where it was recently announced that a projected $4 billion deficit may be smaller than everyone thought.— benwaxman
- I love the Goebels reporting. Recovery? Have some more kool-aid.
The budget is not sustainable and believing we can return back to bloated big government that has doubled in size in less then 10 years you are dreaming and should march with the union pigs in WI.
Recovery?
Let's just ignore 10.6% inflation in food and gas annualized since January 1 and the fact that we need 200,000 new jobs every month to absorb population growth and the current unemployed to really see improvement in the labor market.
The labor participation rate is under 58% It used to be above 64% It continues to drop.
The next leg down is coming and corporate profits are being squeezed just look at the latest PPI report and you see margin compression throughout the supply chain from crude materials to final products.
I just want people to be aware and prepare. Tough times are coming and the failed prop job and hiding of problems that have not been solved are coming back and we need to face them.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=180283— Blackswan - Comment removed.
