Katz: City has money to pay for part of firefighters award
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Katz: City has money to pay for part of firefighters award
Last week, Mayor Nutter’s aides warned that there would be tough times ahead if the city lost an appeal of a recent arbitration award for firefighters. Finance director Rob Dubow said the city would have to make numerous cuts to afford the award, like reducing library hours and eliminating hundreds of jobs.
But Sam Katz, chairman of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA), told It’s Our Money that there may be another way. Within the city budget, he said, is secret money.
“I actually believe that the city budget has resources in it that, for litigation reasons, are not being disclosed,” said Katz. “Somewhere, buried deep in the recesses of the city budget, are some funds to take care of this problem. So this will not, in my opinion, ultimately be entirely a cut-funded arbitration award.”
The city has argued that the award, which has a price tag of more than $200 million over the next five years, would lead to deep budget deficit. Firefighters, meanwhile, have contended that the city could find funds to cover the award and should honor it.
Mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald said the list of potential cuts, which were provided to PICA last week, are sound. The list was created by city departments this spring, when they were asked to show how they would cut their budgets.
“The administration believes the projections that we’ve laid out are reasonable, and we’re going to continue to work with PICA to show members that,” he said.
Dubow said last week that the possible cuts are speculative. He also emphasized that the city expects to win the appeal.
Call Nutter's bluff PICA. All King Nutter has to do is make sensible cuts to the army of political appointees this arrogant elitist has hired. These people are scattered throughout ever city department and have jobs because they know someone in power. The taxpayers and services will not suffer one bit by laying them off. Aggressively collect overdue property taxes and give our brave fire fighters the raises that they deserve. Enough with this disrespect. Nutter is anti-middle class.— Michael T. Welsh- Thats nice but PICA like Committee of 70, HBurg, DN, Inky, all fluff, no bite no power. Unfortunately same old same old. 2013 will be another year that the pension obligation kicks in, remember the running and whining to HBurg a couple of years ago to defer the obligation payments?— uandwhosearmy
- I guess the city is definately cutting dhs budget by giving the net $25 million and another agency $20 million to do work that dhs workers will end up doing.. but they city does not have money to give contracts!!
dont believe the hype! theres plenty money but you guys will believe the well is dry it i beat it in your heads everyday!.. 47/33/ has saved the city millions of dollars! its time to file a malfeasance claim!— noncents - It is curious that the mayor finds money to pay for the things he wants but cries poor when he does not want to do something. He seems to favor some city agencies more than others. The firefighters did not support his election campaign and he's had it out for them ever since. He cries crocodile tears when one of them loses their life protecting the city but slams the door in their faces when it comes to honoring a legally awarded arbitration decision. Shame on him.— little2right
- Nutter should honor and abide the arbitrator decision and give the firefighters their contract and raise— ElecFact
- What happened to Casino money, what happened to property increases, what happened to extra 2% on sales tax? What happened to the decrease in wage tax that was halted temporary? We are taxed so high it’s a joke. Just keep printing money and give these slugs raises and bigger pensions, I guess I will work till I am 70 to pay for all the DROP and cops that have committed crimes and still receive pensions. We need to protest not the 1%, but the high Government pay and pensions. The can is close to the edge. Any day now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!— BushisGood
- "Reducing library hours . . ." Come on, most branches are free baby-sitting services and places for seniors to sit all day in air conditioning. That's nice, but it doesn't rank up there with fire protection.— tomfox
- @ Bushisgood ... You're right we're doomed so long as our elected leaders continue to give into these Govt. workers. Look - we all admire and respect Police & Fireman and the other city workers that play a vital role in the city (Sanitation workers etc.) BUT, at some point the city has to get their BENEFITS in line with the 80% who don't work for the city & are taxed to support these programs. DROP should be abolished today! Pension contributions should be raised from 5-6% to 8or 9% and 'Cadillac' health care programs with the $5 co-pays need to be brought in line with standard programs (or at least something close). Its not that the firemen are overpaid, its the overly-generous benefits that are bankrupting the cities.— kennedy2
- The Mayor can't unilaterally ( or even with Council's agreement) cut the pay and pension of unionized City employees. Those provisions need to be negotiated-- by law.One option is to try to change the State law re: public employee unions (and we know how well that worked in Wisconsin). Katz is no better then the posters on Philly.com, suggesting there is a simple solution to this problem.— willll
- Katz volunteered his services to help Rendell get the city back on track when Rendell was mayor. Katz knows exactly what he's talking about. — gemini48
- 200 million? by who's numbers? Why when the award was appealed this first time it would only cost 65 million? Why the 135 million dollar increase? It will cost more because the city lost the savings they would have had if they did not appeal the first time. I guess the law firm of Ballard and Spahr (Ed Rendell's firm) raised their price for the second go around.— jn3
- How many departments bring in millions to the city? Oh I guess the library does. What a joke. The fire department gives the city 13.4 million for brown outs and closings. And how many lives where lost because of that. Now with this happening they are getting ready to pay the firefighters back by changing there schedule that they have had for over 40 yrs. What a bunch of vindictive jerks.— dirty spaz
