This morning, Philadelphia City Council unanimously passed Mayor Michael Nutter's $3. 8 billion budget. The vote comes after an extremely contentious budget process and major changes to Nutter's original proposal. While Mayor Nutter may be grateful that budget hearings have ended and the proposal passed, the saga is far from over. Below are the next acts for Mayor Nutter in the ongoing drama of the city financial crisis.
Help from Harrisburg. The budget approved by City Council requires authorization from the state for two major parts. First, the city will need permission to hike the sales tax from 7 percent to 8 percent for five years. Second, Nutter is seeking to delay about $230 million in payments to city's pension fund and extend the amount of time the city has to pay unfunded pension liabilities from 20 to 30 years. Both of these measures will require the legislature and governor sign off.
Passage is far from certain. Already, one member of the Philadelphia delegation-- freshman State Representative Brendan Boyle from the Northeast-- has said he will vote against the sales tax increase because it's unfair to businesses located close the city's border. More than Democrats, Nutter needs to worry about the Republicans who control the State Senate. The GOP is locked in a battle with Gov. Rendell over the state budget and they might refuse to help Philadelphia as a matter of anti-tax ideology.
Plan for the worst. If Harrisburg refuses to pass the enabling legislation, the city will be in serious trouble. It will be impossible to raise taxes mid-year and city government will be forced to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in an extremely short amount of time. That could mean layoffs of thousands of city employees, including police officers, firefighters, libraries, and other personnel. City facilities, such a libraries and health centers, might also be slated for closure. It's not entirely clear if City Council will have to approve these reductions, but you can sure there will be a lot of political fallout from such major budget cuts.
Battle with the unions. The upcoming negotiations with the city's four municipal unions are critical. Employee compensation-- salaries and healthcare benefits-- account for nearly half of the city budget. Mayor Nutter will be seeking major concessions from unions at the bargaining table. His budget includes no pay increases for city workers, higher contributions to healthcare and pension plans, and major changes in work-rules.
One of the biggest complications is that the outcome will be outside of Nutter's control. Contract awards for police and firefighters are decided by a process called binding arbitration, where a panel of three people hears testimony from both sides and then makes an award. Historically, these panels have usually award increases in pay and benefits to uniformed employees.
Could this paper sustain a hit of a penny a paper sales tax increase? Doubtful. That's not "anti-tax ideology" friends. That's the supply and demand curve. Many Philly businesses are in just as precarious position on their sales as is your own paper.— CleanupPhilly- To phrase the dilemma as H-burg might refuse to "help" Philadelphia and it's a matter of "anti-tax ideology" -- is that really accurate. Really? Doesn't that just ignore Philly has revenue owed it that it doesn't collect? If it is valid that other counties don't allow that, and neither does the state, can it be valid to expect Philly to be different, and to characterize that as mere "ideology?" The state is not going to just let Philly hurt constituent businesses so it can avoid doing what every other legislator and public servant must confront outside Philly. There's not just overdue property taxes owed Philly, there's $1 billion in forfeit bail. Yes, we can collect this money. We just have to institute industry-standard practices. Yes, it's going to be hard, but everyone is required to follow the law or suffer foreclosure, repossession, etc. If you skip your court date, you have to pay the bail. Or else the city needs to stop bailing people out. It undermines the whole system. Nobody else does this on bail or property taxes. You don't have to be anti-tax ideologue to want to cut Philly off from relying on economic taxes that are already too high to force it to do the hard stuff all the other politicians have had to negotiate. Philly can't continue to be the sweet daddy that bails everyone out and lets you slide if you don't show for court, the nice guy that allows you to not pay property taxes if you don't want. Being the sugar daddy gets votes. Is being fiscally responsible and cutting Philly off really "anti-tax ideology" or is it dragging Philly kicking and screaming into the 21st century? Philly has to do a Pittsburgh. Harrisburg knows it. Why is the press still playing the partisanship games?— CleanupPhilly
- Harrisburg is not only going to have to deny Philly this sales tax hike and ridiculous pension request, one your union would never sign off on. Harrisburg will likely have to take over the function of the BRT and Dept. of Revenue, the collections function of the Sheriff, the bail collection function of the clerk of quarter sessions, et al., to stop Philly from being a begging basket case. Like the PPA, these agencies won't do the hard unpopular work of taxing fairly, collecting promptly, and delivering stable revenue until Harrisburg takes them over. Perzel, where are you when we need you? Prove me wrong and cover how the Democrats are fixing these agencies.— CleanupPhilly
- Governor Rendell has turned Philadelphia into Killadelphia...the Largest Open Air Prison in America and now, the First in the Nation in "COP KILLINGS". For years Rendell has been betraying sacred public trust by releasing thousands of stone thugs to save Million$ in State Budget Funds for his "No Bid" contracts, etc. Remember Cain? Giddings? Burgess? Shaw? Wilson? and most recently, the 4 out of the 5 Murderers currently on trial for gunning down "Piggy", the mother of 4 children? All are State Parolees. Look at it...State Parolees are responsible for our Murder and Crime Rates. Rendell has been repeatedly helped/allowed to do this by Mayor Nutter, The City Council, State Legislature, and Tom Corbett (Attorney General who's running for Governor and too busy to worry about innocent lives, duty, etc.). They've all been told, in writting, with evidence for well over a year now. Murder victim after murder victim...destroyed family after destroyed family. State Parole Agent caseloads are unmanageable by design. Where are all our "Award Winning" Investigative Reporters? Probably on leashes and muzzeled, cause their bosses want a bailout ($$$) from Rendell! Everybody knows what's going on...that we've been unjustly and routinely paying hundreds of Millions and Bleeding to death for the previledge...that another "Newsworthy Parolee Murder Victim" is very certain and VERY SOON, but nobody wants to say who's responsible for "The Rendell Murders". We need to sue the State to get our money back...encourage all the victims to sue the State... call the FBI and DOJ and demand that they investigate Rendell, Parole Board Chairman McVey (Who's been refusing to send Parole Violators back to prison for over 4 years now) for Corruption and Civil Rights Violations! Where are the FEDs when we need'em? Let's all stop reading and start calling the FEDs! Big Brother Where Are You?!— John Law
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
