Right before the snow storm hit, the Daily News reported that the battered city budget has another $100 million deficit that must be addressed this current fiscal year. (The gap could grow to $700 million by the end of five years.) According to Finance Director Rob Dubow, the city will be forced to make another round of tough choices.
"Whatever way you look at it, it's a significant number that raises really big challenges that shows that this process is going to be really difficult," Dubow said.
[snip]
Dubow said that the shortfall for the 2011 fiscal year, which starts July 1, is due to lower-than-expected wage-tax and sales-tax collections, as well as the cost of the recent police-arbitration award. The three other municipal contracts have not yet been resolved.
So how much money are we really talking about here? Out of a $3.8 billion budget, what can you buy for $100 million? Below are three examples of current spending to put the number into prospective.
More than the entire budget for parks, recreation, museums, and libraries. Last year, the city spent roughly $82 million to fund Fairmount Park, recreation centers, the Art Museum, and other cultural programs. The budget deficit is about 20 percent more than the total budget for all of these institutions.
Total budget of First Judicial District. Unlike every other county in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia is forced to pay for its entire local court system. The total budget of the First Judicial District was $99 million last year.
Half the cost of debt service. From capital projects to short-term cash flow, the city relies on a lot of debt to operate. Every year, taxpayers repay about $200 million to various banks and financial institutions. The current deficit is about half the total debt service.
Follow us on Twitter and review city services on our sister site, City Howl.
What did the fiscal moderates say? Whether centrist Dems or fiscal-restraint GOPers, they said to a man and woman that sales taxes are not going to bring in the revenue they once did in Philly, not just because of a recession, but because the nature of the game has changed. From online shopping and cutthroat competition of expanding mail ordering between big box stores, you don't have the receipts to tax in the city, and it's a problem. Office Depot and Staples compete with online coupons for free shipping and discounts, so every office manager and secretary just holds off until the better deal comes into their email mailbox instead of paying a ridiculous sales tax by shopping on Chestnut St. I pay as little sales taxes as I can, and it's hurting the local merchants for sure. Idiot city policy is how to ensure that CC has vacancies in what should be a thriving retail district. Did the editorialists listen to that economically supported view based on work done even by UPenn at Wharton? NEWWWOOOOo. Seriously, you can't dictate the market its terms, you can only try to work with them and understand them. The Democrats in power now have zero economics, zero business experience and skills of the caliber to run a city, and the press is not much better, on the verge of going bankrupt themselves with the tax, borrow, spend model of doing things, and try not to pay back what you owe because hey, Lehman did it. Did your paper give Obama money? Not going to work for a city, a paper, or a party. Quit spending your days staring at the sun. From the beginning, the economic reports were stating exactly what is happening, only the pols tried to spin it, oh, the economy's on the upswing, we don't need layoffs or to cut, we're going to be fine if we just hold the line. The city is owed $400 million in overdue property taxes, and $— CleanupPhilly- $1 billion in forfeit bail. The city can't afford to not collect what it is owed, and you guys should be hammering this issue. Plus audits. What city allows the housing and community development money to be wasted like this? Two kids DIED in fires in PHA housing, the houses are still blighted wrecks, and the Dems on the paper are all, "we just need more money, mo money, mo money." NO. We need to spend what we have gotten well, and sell what PHA can't use. PHA is taxpayer funded blight in my neighborhood. This is how Democrats lose elections. This is not an agency that should be getting ANY Recovery Act funding, and where's the coverage of that? http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pha+blight&search_type=&aq=f— CleanupPhilly
MONEY AND JUSTICE DON'T MIX
WILL THE NEW COUNCIL GIVE YOU A SAY?
Tips? Comments? Questions?
Contact:
Doron Taussig:
215-854-5307
doron.taussig@gmail.com
@dorontaussig
Holly Otterbein:
215-854-5809
hm.otterbein@gmail.com
@hollyotterbein
Juliana Reyes:
215-854-5855
juliana.f.reyes@gmail.com
@juliana_f_reyes
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