An Overview of the Philadelphia City Budget, from Mayor Cherelle Parker
Today marked a historic day in the City Council’s Chamber as Mayor Cherelle L. Parker delivered her inaugural budget address. Cherelle is the 100th Mayor and first woman to ever be elected to the position. The Budget Address is an opportunity for the Mayor to discuss the “State of the City”, in other words the state of the city's fiscal health, her priorities and key initiatives, and investments over the next five years. Philadelphia’s fiscal year runs from July 1st through June 30th. The Council will hold regular budget hearings beginning March 26th. The budget hearings offer the Council the opportunity to engage each department, learn about its respective missions, and ask specific questions pertaining to programming and operational decisions.
During her budget address, Mayor Parker indicated that the “city’s fiscal state is good!” She outlined her $6.29 billion budget proposal focused on her commitment of creating a “safer, cleaner, greener Philadelphia with access to economic opportunity for all.” The Mayor further indicated that there are no new changes to the current structure of the city’s tax policy. The Mayor is awaiting results from the Tax Reform Commission established by Council President Johnson before making any such decisions on tax policy. She also made it a point that the city is required to spend $449 million in federal pandemic relief dollars by the end of the year.
Mayor Parker spent a significant amount of time speaking explaining her investments in public safety, cleaner & greener initiatives, and economic opportunity. Please see below for highlights of her budget proposal:
Public Safety
● $33M in New Spending on Public Safety.
● Funding also includes:
○ $15M for new cars;
○ $2.7M for drones; and
○ $1.4 upgrades to investigative tools and IT.
● $45M in capital funds to improve the Police Department’s forensic lab.
● New funds and resources for victims of crimes that includes an additional $24M in Community Grant Funding to grassroots community organizations that work with vulnerable populations and in neighborhoods most affected by crime.
● Dedicate 100 Officers to Community Policing.
● $3M for Citizens Police Oversight Commission.
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Economic Development & Quality of Life
● Investing in commercial areas/workforce development: Expanding PHL TCB to more commercial corridors, thereby increasing workforce development/training opportunities for “TCB Clean-Ambassadors.”
● Supporting successful apprenticeship programs across city departments.
● Launching new "PHL Open for Business" initiative to reduce cost and complexity businesses experience when navigating City government.
● Investment in diverse businesses by providing funding for Accelerator Fund and Innovate Capital Growth Fund.
● Offering new models of collaboration through Business, Faith-Based, and Intergovernmental Mayoral Roundtables, focused on developing solutions to shared challenges
● $36M for Clean & Green Initiatives:
○ Target of 10,000 abandoned cars;
○ 100 new sanitation workers;
○ 10 dedicated residential street cleaning crews;
○ $11M to pilot twice weekly trash collection;
○ New illegal dumping crew; and
○ 1,500 new big belly trash cans.
● Housing:
○ Continuing investment in housing through programs like Turn The Key; Restore, Repair, and Renew; and Basic Systems Repair Program (BSRP).
○ Ensuring City-supported new housing is "affordable luxury" with high-quality fixtures and finishes.
○ Comprehensive review of Land Bank aimed at more quickly returning parcels to productive use.
○ Institutionalizing Philadelphia Home Appraisal Bias Task Force within city government to help implement its findings.
○ Supporting Philadelphia Human Relations Commission (PCHR) to focus educational and enforcement efforts on eliminating home appraisal
discrimination.
○ $16 million in added funding for the city’s Office of Homeless Services.
● $100 million for new “triage facilities.” The facilities are a key priority for the Kensington Caucus and necessary to dismantle the open-air drug market in the neighborhood.
Education
● Supporting K-12 schools: Making a record investment in public education by increasing city support of the School District by $24 million in FY25 and by nearly $129 million over the five plan.
● Provide young people with extended-day/year-round enrichment and career development opportunities and address the urgent need for school facilities improvement.
● Building career pathways by providing a $10 million new investment in Community College of Philadelphia (“CCP”) to avoid a tuition increase and supporting a new City College for Municipal Employment, which is a partnership between CCP and the School that will create a pipeline to city jobs.
● Continued support of the Catto scholarship.
● Changing the way the real estate tax revenue is split: 56% ($119M over the next 5 years) in revenue to the School District.