The $6.2 billion budget adds additional monies to programs that were listed as priorities leading up to the May 16 primary. But the tax cuts included in the package were a bridge too far for some members
By Denise Clay-Murray
During its regular meeting last Thursday, Philadelphia City Council passed a $6.2 billion preliminary budget package that increased funding for a lot of things that voters heard about on the May 16 primary campaign trail.
Public safety? $3 million dollars were added to police recruitment efforts designed to get more officers on the streets and another $3 million was added for mobile crisis response teams.
A cleaner city? $1.475 million more dollars to take on illegal dumping and $3.5 million more to the organization Same Day Pay, a non-profit organization that gives residents, especially returning citizens, jobs cleaning the city’s neighborhoods.
Better recreation centers so that young people have something to do? $15 million was put into the budget for that.
In his last budget as Council president, Darrell Clarke believes it’s a plan that looks at both the present and the future.
“We need to do the things that we need to do, and we need to take into account that we’re going to have a new mayor coming in,” he said. “At the end of the day, that new mayor needs to be in a position to have resources to carry forth their vision.”
Mayor Jim Kenney agrees.
“I am grateful to my colleagues in City Council for their partnership in the Fiscal Year 2024 Operating and Capital Budget process,” he said. “Together we have preliminarily reached the eighth and final budget of this administration, which is also the last budget to be passed under Council President Darrell Clarke’s leadership. This budget sets the stage for Philadelphia’s next chapter, and I am proud that it reflects our momentum and shared commitment to public safety, thriving neighborhoods, educational opportunity, and inclusive growth.”
But while the additions to the budget were good news, they weren’t enough for some council members. And when combined with even deeper reductions in the city’s wage and Business And Income Receipts Taxes — or BIRT — than proposed by Mayor Jim Kenney, some expressed their dismay.
While it did include these additional tax cuts, the budget didn’t include a $72 million amendment that would have given additional American Rescue Plan funding to such things as housing, trash collection, and code enforcement for the city.
At the Committee of the Whole meeting prior to Council resuming its regular session to pass the budget, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier (D-3rd Dist.), the member that proposed this amendment, voted against the budget bills and chastised her colleagues for supporting something a document she described as “insulting, out-of-touch, and inadequate.”
“[The budget] is a catastrophic mistake,” Gauthier said. “Even though 14 out of 15 City Councilmembers came together to advocate for a $72 million investment in the city services our residents desperately need, this budget only includes a woefully inadequate $5.65 million. At the same time, we are putting millions of dollars into the pockets of corporations. The budget is a slap in the face to our working class, Black and Brown residents who have been begging City Hall for the resources they need to live on a green, clean, and safe block.”
Fellow councilmembers Katherine Gilmore Richardson (D-At-Large) and Isaiah Thomas (D-At-Large) defended the tax breaks.
While it would have been nice to base the tax breaks on need and ensure those with the most need would get them first, the Commonwealth’s Uniformity Clause demands that they must be applied evenly, Gilmore Richardson said.
Thomas contended that since the pandemic has shown that businesses can conduct themselves anywhere, the BIRT reductions were necessary to keep businesses in the city. He also questioned Gauthier’s connection of tax decreases to the lack of city services.
“I wonder where the Councilmember is getting her numbers from,” Thomas said. I support providing just services to the community, but to tie the lack of delivery on her request to tax cuts is disingenuous. It’s apples to oranges.”
The second reading and final passage of the budget is expected to take place during this Thursday’s regular Council meeting.
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