I work for a large NPO in Philly and I also run my own fledgling organization. One NPO deals with youth development, particularly with disadvantaged youth and the other deals with supporting original music in Philly. Both of these are threatened by the current budget impasse and the proposed budget cuts by the Republican State Senate.

I know that funding is frozen at this moment and that if the budget is passed in it's current form that many good organizations will get reduced funding if they even get funding at all. I am angry and so are a lot of my colleagues across a few different communities. Everyone is angered to the point that they are ready to mobilize... the problem is who do they mobilize against and how?

I'm writing to tell you that you are being childish and irresponsible holding the city of Philadelphia's budget hostage to the state budget negotiations. By law both the state of Pennsylvania and city of Philadelphia were supposed to work a complete budget deal by July 1.

The city of Philadelphia kept up its end of the deal and met that July 1 deadline and state government dropped the ball. Now you, as part of political gamesmanship, are punishing the people of Philadelphia to try to gain leverage in those still ongoing state budget negotiations.

Thats an awful, awful, downright immoral thing to do. It makes you seem like a petty, vindictive person in my book.

In the episode of The Simpsons "There's Something About Marrying", Springfield faces the reputation of being one of the worst towns in America. At a meeting to decide how to solve this and bring back tourists, Lisa suggests legalizing Same-Sex Marriage. In turn, Moe mentions that doing so, "I can charge so much for them special drinks, like a Martini!" Mayor Quimby quickly quips, "All in favor of legalizing gay money- er, gay marriage, say "aye!" The entire crowd goes "AYE!".

Simply put, same-sex marriage = money!

In this season of tough city budget choices, one where the end result is looking more and more like it will have a little something for almost everyone to dislike, there are few things Philadelphians of all walks of life are in complete and utter agreement on quite as much as their dislike of the DROP program being applied elected officials.
At all the budget events I saw or or read descriptions of, DROP was right up there, if not tops, with the property tax abatements and City Council cars as some place we should be looking at critically before we look to cut services and raise taxes. Now, the Mayor wants to take a careful look at it. I wonder why we have not already.

I went to the budget forum in South Philly last night as a ringer of sorts. I was there as a resident but also to advocate for the positions of the Coalition for Essential Services.

The break out session I attended had about 25 people in it as well as some folks from the City. The rest of the group were not activists nor did they seem to be highly politically active. They were concerned residents.

I entered my breakout session with my 'alternative points' in hand. However in terms of my agenda I might as well have stayed at home. Before the breakout even started a South Philly resident objected that the process was skewed toward making cuts. He pointed out that all of the increase revenue options were listed after the service cuts. And that the increase revenue points and numbers seemed very low.

The folks from the Friends of the Free Library who have been coordinating the citywide library campaign are now focusing their demands on closing all libraries three days per week, but not fully shuttering any libraries. I tend to think this is not the best demand. We have to be able to come up with a solution better than closing libraries three or four days a week. I think the Friends of the Library see this as the most winnable solution.

A lot of other solutions have been thrown around including collecting money from the Eagles, raising the wage tax by 0.1 percent, and asking for money from the federal government. I don't know how realistic any of these things are in the short term.

Do people think there is a winnable demand that we can make to keep libraries open? There will be a citywide rally on December 6. I think unifying around a demand for that action could be important.

--Eric

The public announcement by mayor Michael Nutter that Philadelphia faces a serious economic crisis should have come to no surprise to anyone with even a passing acquaintance with the economic state of Philadelphia, its current budget or its 5-year plan.. Adding insult to this injury is that we are faced with a fiscal tsunami without the benefit of a rainy day fund, despite many of us, most notably Councilman Jim Kenney, demanding one for the last eight years.

Sadly, the Administration’s proposals to rein in the budget amount to little more than temporary diversions that will still have us headed for trouble in the future.

These proposals go right to the essence of what government should do for its people. Closing libraries, rolling back snow plowing and bulk trash removal, cutting police hires, and closing pools will have a devastating effect on Philadelphia’s children and the poor and middle class families to which they belong.

So I see that my red-diaper baby friend, Mr. Murphy, wants to raise my taxes. Typical! I guess I can volunteer for that, especially because as a full-time student living off the fat of Mr. and Mrs. Stafford, I don't pay any taxes anyway. So raise them, suckers! (But when September comes, and I find a job and everything, I will need you to lower them again. Thanks.)

Anyway, I want to talk about the ridiculous notion that most Philadelphians are, as Elmer Smith said today, being asked to sacrifice for all of this mess.

The news, as you've heard by now, is bad. The short version is that you will pay slightly more for significantly less.

But Michael Nutter rattled off the details with that same deadpan delivery he uses to convey every other data bit he shares with the press or public. You can't beat this guy for bearing ominous tidings.

You want the guy who brings the bad news to be cool. You want it straight, no chaser. But you don't want the guy who has to get us through it to look like his pants are on fire.

...

Nutter's five-year budget-gap projections swelled from $450 million in September to $850 million a month ago to what now looks like $1.35 billion.

...

It's bad, maybe worse than we know. But Barack Obama and Michael Nutter are as cool as the other side of the pillow. They look like they know what they're doing, and the importance of that is not just a matter of appearances.

Both of them are asking us to make sacrifices. Obama in campaign stops even before he was elected was calling on Americans to "return to a spirit of service, responsibility and sacrifice.

My library isn't being cut. My street was never plowed anyway. I don't have children who won't have a place to swim in the 100 degree summer. And, I am not being laid-off. Life is grand.

Except for the fact that I believe that as a community we have a shared responsibility, and that we are killing ourselves in the long term with these cuts, I am not really being asked to sacrifice. And for most middle-class people out there, you aren't being asked to sacrifice, either. In fact, in the spirit of a wonderful man I know and love, you are being told that in this ever-growing crisis, you will get a wage tax cut.

Yes, in the time of less police coverage, shut down libraries and layoffs, Philadelphians are about to get a tax cut.

Here is the reality: Courtesy of the state, everyone who pays wage taxes in the city will be getting cuts next year, to the tune of about 100 million dollars. (Consider it a gift from the grandma who is spending her social security check at the Casino in Chester, with a couple cents trickling back to you. It also is coming, regardless of what happens with Foxwoods and Sugarhouse.)

So, even believing that the deficit is one billion dollars, which I question, and even believing that there are not much better ways to save the City money, which I don't believe, the City could instantly cut half of the deficit by simply saying that they were going to- temporarily or permanently- raise wage taxes by the same amount the Casino revenues will drop them by.

In the first year, that is $100 million dollars into the kitty. By simply paying the same wage taxes we do now, rather than taking a cut, we can immediately cut half off of the deficit. I think it is very plausible that with savings, with some help from the Feds, etc., the libraries and the parks and the pools can stay open.

For all the tax people out there, I would even say we can make them temporary. But, really, it seems silly to say that as we shutter the doors of our libraries and lay off workers at Fairmount Park, what Philadelphians really need is a tax cut.

So why don't we start there and, combined with a look at where we as a City truly waste money, see where it gets us.

Keep taxes the same. Save the City.

As Philly struggles with looming financial doom, our three newest Councilmembers are showing that elections matter:

Today, Council members Bill Green, Maria Quinones-Sanchez, and Curtis Jones, all freshmen, released 15 legitimate, thoughtful, progressive-oriented ways to save the city money in light of these hard economic times. (Mayor Nutter has said that "everything is on the table" when it comes to needed cuts.)

The best thing about the 15 ideas is that they are sure to make entrenched bureaucrats sitting on fluffy patronage jobs a bit uncomfortable. For example, the council members suggest increasing car sharing (alleged savings $2.72 million annually), cutting all but necessary travel (alleged savings $100,000 annually), banning swag and custom printing (alleged savings $100,000 annually), and hiring more auditors (alleged savings nearly $3 million annually).

It's actually appalling that many of the suggestions aren't already in use. One, for example, is switching to the electronic transfer of funds (alleged savings $2 million annually) from the state to the city. The city still accepts paper checks, which get lost, thereby losing interest! You've got to be kidding.

Another suggestion is the electronic sending of all reports and memos. Bill Green attached a letter that was mailed to his office -- which costs, of course, 42 cents -- from someone inside City Hall (alleged savings $25,000 annually).

The mail and the direct deposit stuff are really only-in-Philadelphia type moments. Of course, when your government complains about how hard it is to publish voting returns...

Anyway, it is cool to see the three new Council members continue their buddy-buddy ways with real solutions. I am not saying that our more tenured politicians cannot come up with good ideas, because I am sure they can. But there is little question that three sets of fresh eyes is doing us a lot of good.

The City Paper has more, including their whole list of ways to save.