Spring Break
Budget cuts affect Philly
Stephanie Takach
Issue date: 11/14/08 Section: News
Philadelphia Mayor Nutter released budget cuts last week that could leave the city with a $1 billion shortfall, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. In a 10-minute televised address, Nutter outlined the budget cuts that will close libraries, cut more than 800 jobs and trim salaries for some administrators in response the national economic crisis.
"The economic storm has arrived with such force that a respected economist said it was as if the national economy had 'fallen off a cliff,'" Nutter said in the speech. "Painful program and service cuts are necessary."
The city is facing a deficit of $108 million this year, and the shortfall could grow to more than $1 billion by 2013, Nutter said.
The fiscal problems stem from the same troubles overwhelming the national and global economies, he said. Revenues from business and real estate taxes are down and the city's pension fund has underperformed, forcing officials to stabilize it with other money from the $4 billion municipal budget, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
"This is a fiscal challenge of unprecedented size, scale and suddenness," Nutter said later at an afternoon news conference.
He said that the city's health centers and recreation facilities will remain open, and that after-school programs will be preserved. However, three ice rinks will be closed this winter unless private funding can be found, and 68 out of 81 pools will be empty this summer, Nutter said. Eleven libraries will close, and three others will lose their Sunday hours, according to the Inquirer article.
"The economic storm has arrived with such force that a respected economist said it was as if the national economy had 'fallen off a cliff,'" Nutter said in the speech. "Painful program and service cuts are necessary."
The city is facing a deficit of $108 million this year, and the shortfall could grow to more than $1 billion by 2013, Nutter said.
The fiscal problems stem from the same troubles overwhelming the national and global economies, he said. Revenues from business and real estate taxes are down and the city's pension fund has underperformed, forcing officials to stabilize it with other money from the $4 billion municipal budget, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
"This is a fiscal challenge of unprecedented size, scale and suddenness," Nutter said later at an afternoon news conference.
He said that the city's health centers and recreation facilities will remain open, and that after-school programs will be preserved. However, three ice rinks will be closed this winter unless private funding can be found, and 68 out of 81 pools will be empty this summer, Nutter said. Eleven libraries will close, and three others will lose their Sunday hours, according to the Inquirer article.
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KingofthePaupers
posted 7/18/09 @ 4:38 PM EST
Jct: There's nothing wrong with small denomination municipal or California State IOUs if anyone can pay their taxes with them. When Argentina's government workers were faced with cuts, their unions talked 6 state governments into paying them with small-denomination state bonds which could be used to pay for state services and taxes by everyone. (Continued…)
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