Now that Mayor Nutter has made his budget proposal, City Council is set to begin holding hearings to debate the details. To help keep you up to speed, we'll be publishing "cheat sheets" with important facts and figures about the department being debated, and telling you how and when to share your thoughts with Council. After the hearings, we'll solicit your "testimony," and hopefully wrap it all up by giving you a chance to design your own city budget.
Council's first hearing, being held tomorrow, is on the city's Five-Year-Plan. Here's what you need to know. -DT
CHEAT SHEET: THE FIVE-YEAR PLAN HEARING
Time and Location: Wednesday, March 10th @ 10 am, City Council chambers (4th floor of City Hall). There’s no public testimony built into the schedule for this hearing.
What it is: Since the early 1990s, when Philadelphia was flirting with bankruptcy, the city has been required by the state to budget for five years. The Nutter Administration released its plan for FY10-FY15 (read it here) on the day of the budget address.
Why it matters: If City Council passes Nutter's budget, it will then have to be approved by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA), a public agency that acts as a control board for state bonds. Should PICA refuse to sign off on the budget, millions of dollars in loans will be withheld. Generally, city officials know that local government can't operate without those funds and will tailor the plan to get it passed by PICA.
What to expect at the hearing: The Five-Year-Plan is where the city does its long-term thinking, so expect City Council to ask a lot of questions about the overall strategy of Nutter's budget. What does he think the city will look like in five years? What good things are going to happen and what problems will get worse? Are there impending challenges we're not planning for? The Five-Year-Plan hearings are also a good opportunity to question the revenue assumptions in the budget.
What's in Nutter's plan? Nutter's budget assumes the economy will improve over the next five years, meaning more tax revenue will flow into the city. It also assumes that the three municipal unions -- which have been working under a contract extension since June 30th -- will agree to contracts with no raises and steep benefit cuts. The budget resumes wage and business tax cuts in the final year of the plan.
What happened last year: Last year, PICA didn't sign off on the Five-Year-Plan until Harrisburg approved the city's sales tax increase in September. In the meanwhile, the agency became something of a political ping-pong, as Mayor Nutter tried to use PICA deadlines to force action from the state legislature. After the increase passed, PICA approved the plan.
We need a Republican Governor in PA. Every time PICA could have forced the city to implement a more fiscally responsible budget that would not compel tax increases, allow uncontrolled spending, and borrowing with no thought to the service of the debt, it's because Rendell's hand-picked PICA appointees allowed it. This meant that gains made in Philly under Rendell's term as mayor dissipated under his term as PA governor on matters of reform, audits, checks, openness, transparency, and simple fiscal management common to business and municipal government elsewhere.— CleanupPhilly- For example, PICA allows the city to not include a plan for how it is going to act to collect the $500 million in overdue property taxes, or the $1 billion in forfeit bail. Going after those debits is "hands off" under orders by the Democrats and their cozy relationship with PICA. That was never the intent of PICA. Healthy checks and balances requires a PICA that will question how this debt is allowed to fester with no action and no result even as the city drowns in debt and raises taxes on those of us who do pay. It is a sick injustice.— CleanupPhilly
- the city needs to find more cuts, raising taxes is unacceptable at this point— dreinterests
- PLEASE, PLEASE - PICA don't sign off on the budget!!! Force the City into a corner, from which the only extrication available would be (not cuts in services but) cuts to all the patronage jobs and waste in the existing government! How about HALF as many Council members (annual savings of approximately $8 million) to get a reasonably sized legislature? And half the budget for the City Commissioners (annual savings $4.5 million) to bring them in line with spending per-voter elsewhere? Or maybe cleaning out the BRT, Clerk of Quarter Sessions, Register of Wills, and Sheriff's Office, transferring their functions to existing departments within the civil service and thereby skimming off the most useless patronage employees (estimated savings $6-10 million)? How about enforcing the Supreme Court ruling that the State pay for our Courts, just like they pay for all the other counties (estimated annual savings around $100 million), especially if the functions of the Register of Wills and Quarter Sessions Clerk go with it (another $6 million)? And perhaps get PPA to fund the School District as required? And mandate all City employees be civil service, and that the unions accept changes to workplace rules allowing people to be fired without ridiculous roadblocks? And look into the $41 million spent on Homeless and Housing Assistance? Or a requirement (as Cleanup points out in his usual notes) that the City institute a full-remittance policy for bail, taxes, and fees due? How about selling off some of the $1.2 billion in City-owned properties? C'MON PICA - STICK IT TO 'EM, AND DON"T LET THEM COME BACK WITH SERVICE CUTS OR NEW TAXES UNTIL THERE'S NO FAT TO BE TRIMMED!!!— citylumberjack
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
 | Follow on Twitter |
- Philly Clout
- Metropolis
- Attytood
- Heard in the Hall
- Commonwealth Confidential
- Philebrity
- Phawker
- Young Philly Politics
- OurPhiladelphia
- Capitol Ideas
- Grassroots PA
- PA Policy Blog
- Media Mobilizing Project
- The Notebook
- Dave Davies Off Mic
- Committee of Seventy
- The Independent
- Naked City
- Plan Philly
- February
- January
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
