Why are elections so expensive here?

That cha-ching you hear when you cast a vote? It's just the hefty cost of Philly elections piling up.

According to an analysis by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, elections in Philadelphia cost $9 annually for every registered voter. In contrast, across the state's 15 next largest counties, the median cost was $4.70 per voter.

The election data was revealed during a board meeting yesterday for PICA, a state agency that provides oversight for the city budget. It came out during a conversation about a report that the agency is preparing on Philadelphia's row offices.

The City Commissioners, a three-person panel in charge of the city's election operation, are among the city's six elected row offices.

PICA Executive Director Uri Monson said that precise information about why Philadelphia's elections are more expensive is hard to come by, because there is a lack of comparable detailed budget data. But he did note that the commissioners have limited hiring controls or budgetary oversight.

Philly elections cost roughly $9.3 million annually for just over a million registered voters, according to PICA.

Marge Tartaglione, chairwoman of the City Commissioners, said through a staffer that she would comment after reading a final copy of the report.

More detail on all the city row offices - and the savings the city could realize by consolidating some of them - will be provided when the full report comes out in the next couple of weeks, Monson said.

In a report released in the spring, the watchdog group Committee of Seventy recommended that the city eliminate four row offices - the sheriff, register of wills, the clerk of quarter sessions and the city commissioners - a total of six elected positions.

Getting rid of the offices would require City Council to seek voter approval, with one exception: the clerk of quarter sessions.

In 2005, voters in Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, approved a plan to get rid of the clerk of courts, coroner, jury commissioners, prothonotary, recorder of deeds and register of wills.

The offices were consolidated and elected officials were replaced with three appointed posts, for a savings of more than $1 million.