Among the options: requiring city employees to contribute toward their health-insurance costs and reducing their premiums if they participate in fitness or wellness programs to help them lose weight or lower their cholesterol, for instance.
Regardless of the pressure that pension and health benefits put on the city budget, Nutter's aides say, the new mayor will not abandon his plans to continue incremental cuts in business and wage taxes.
"Cutting taxes is the only way we're going to make the city stronger in the long run and create jobs," said adviser Terry Gillen.
Philadelphia Gas Works
When Nutter moves into City Hall, he'll have to deal with one nasty fiscal leak - the Philadelphia Gas Works.
The city-owned utility has almost $1.3 billion in debt and is unable to earn enough money to pay for its own capital improvements.
But on election eve, Nutter wasn't promising to sell the utility, nor was he saying it's on the verge of collapse.
Rather, he noted that the recent $25 million base-rate boost approved by the state Public Utility Commission was not enough. The company had sought $100 million.
"Clearly, the company needs the money, and yes, we're all very concerned about rates, but you can't run a place with no money," he said. "I want to entertain ideas from the private sector about the company's future operations. Certainly, the PUC's rate relief has not helped the financial picture of PGW."
In fairly rapid order, Nutter wants to see the most recent analyses of what's going on at PGW. He said any solution to PGW's fiscal woes will, of necessity, involve the state, "and we will have to look at the private sector to see what we can do to stabilize the company."
He plans to work with state Rep. Dwight Evans, who is pushing legislation that would give the PUC new authority to merge a troubled gas utility with another company - Exelon, for example. A hearing on the legislation is set for Friday.
When Street took over in 2000, PGW was in much deeper crisis, but over the last eight years, the management team has improved the bill-collection rate and the customer-service operation.
Company execs are hiring a consultant to guide the utility to dramatic cost savings, in the range of $35 million a year. Its labor contract expires in May 2010.
Neighborhoods
If John Street had four more years as mayor, he'd have borrowed more money to keep perhaps his most successful program, the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, going and going.
But Michael Nutter flatly rejects that approach to neighborhood renewal, at least for the next four years.
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