Mayor Cherelle Parker’s first annual budget would pump new dollars into her priority areas of law enforcement and trash cleanup, and increase funding for the school district, emergency housing, SEPTA, and future labor contracts, among other areas.
The spending plan would also put capital dollars toward projects including expanded street repaving and a $100 million effort to create “triage facilities” for illegal drug users in Kensington.
At the same time, Parker is keeping taxes flat and breaking from her predecessor Jim Kenney’s practice of proposing small annual cuts in the city’s wage and business levies.
All together, the proposed fiscal year 2025 spending plan comes to about $6.3 billion, down a bit from the current year’s $6.4 billion budget, according to a five-year plan document released by the administration.
Here’s a rundown of the budget, plus the schedule of Council hearings in case you want to provide testimony.
Tens of millions for police
In line with the law-and-order focus she adopted as a candidate last year, Parker said in her budget address Thursday that she’s asking Council to approve $33.5 million in new operational spending for public safety.
That would help Philadelphia schedule more police recruiting classes to bolster the understaffed department, expand community policing, reduce violent crime, address crimes that affect quality of life like illegal ATV use and retail theft, and shut down Kensington’s open-air drug markets, she said.
The city would also hire more 911 dispatchers, victim advocates, and other civilians in public safety-related positions.
Separately, the city wants to spend $100 million from its capital budget — typically funded with borrowing — on “wellness and treatment for the city’s most vulnerable residents,” principally in Kensington, according to the five-year plan.
Parker and her new police commissioner, Kevin Bethel, have suggested they will take a carrot-and-stick approach to Kensington, offering drug sellers and users opportunities for treatment through newly established triage centers before launching a crackdown.
The mayor on Thursday responded to criticism of her approached from harm-reduction supporters and from residents concerned about heightened policy activity. She said she “care[s] deeply about every person in addiction” and that “prevention, intervention and enforcement…is critical to everything we’re doing in Kensington and across Philadelphia to enhance public safety and community.”
Attacking trash
The administration says it would spend $36 million in new funding on a number of programs grouped under its “Clean and Green” initiative.
PHL Taking Care of Business, which hires residents as cleaning ambassadors to pick up trash on commercial corridors, would bring on 150 more workers, cover more business districts, expand to adjacent residential streets, and get direct support from city sanitation workers.
It will coordinate with a new, $18 million Residential Cleaning Program that will bring cleaning crews to every part of the city, Parker said.
The mayor also wants to hire 100 more sanitation workers. The Streets Department as a whole currently has 1,690 budgeted positions — of which 1,433 were filled as of November — and is projected to have 1,885 in the coming year, according to the five-year plan.
Some $11 million would go toward piloting twice-weekly curbside pickup in a few neighborhoods with severe trash problems, she said.
There will be new illegal dumping collection crews, more surveillance cameras and enough staff to monitor them and report dumping to police, she said. The city will buy 1,500 more BigBelly public trash and recycling receptacles and make sure it has staff to empty them regularly, an issue that has drawn complaints for years.
In her speech Parker praised her Clean and Green office director Carlton Williams, calling him “an empowered and experienced captain.” Some sanitation activists have criticized Williams’ appointment, saying street trash and illegal dumping worsened during his tenure as Kenney’s Streets Commissioner.
The mayor has previously said the city should increase spending on parks, but it’s unclear whether she acceded to advocates’ requests for a significant funding bump for the Department of Parks and Recreation. The five-year budget plan shows a slight decrease from the current $79.4 million budget number, but that could change when full fiscal 2025 budget documents are released over the next few days.
Separately, the mayor is proposing to spend $3 million in capital funding on recreation center infrastructure.
Helping keep SEPTA afloat
Scattered through Parker’s speech and the five-year plan are a number of other details, including:
– The administration plans to increase borrowing for capital projects by $296 million in fiscal 2015, in addition to previous borrowing.
– Capital spending would include $250 million to speed up street repaving, $100 million for triage centers, and allocations for work on prison buildings, fire vehicles and facilities, rec centers, and many other projects.
– Over the next five years, capital projects include $50 million for the relocation of the African American Museum; $46 million for library renovations, including $25 million for a major Central Library renovation; and $14 million for renovations to city-owned buildings at the zoo.
– Parker said her budget “adds $117 million in operating funds for SEPTA” to meet a state match requirement, as the transit agency faces a fiscal cliff due to the expiration of federal pandemic aid. However, the five-year plan shows the city providing $133.3 million in fiscal 2025, up from $109.6 million currently.
– The mayor said the city would make “$24 million in new operating investments for education” in 2025, and would bump up the share of real estate tax collections that go to the school district from 55% to 56%. That would help pay for a multi-year rollout of full-day/year-round schools.
– The Office of Homeless Services will received $16 million in added funding as it deals with investigations of nearly $15 million in overspending over the last four years, the Inquirer reported. In the current year its adopted budget was $80.5 million, but it’s on target to actually spend $91.6 million, according to the five-year plan.
Plaudits and worries
Among those praising Parker’s first budget was Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who said she was excited to hear the mayor propose additional funding for gun violence prevention, the Office of Homeless Services, the school district, and the 911 call center.
She also applauded the administration’s “Clean and Green” programs and efforts to provide high-quality services throughout the city.
“Mayor Parker’s intention to deliver comprehensive relief, rather than the piecemeal improvements we usually see, is exactly what our neighborhoods need and deserve,” Gauthier said.
Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson praised plans to plant trees, boost funding for SEPTA, contribute to a budget reserve fund, and establish a “City College for Municipal Employment” in partnership with the Community College of Philadelphia.
“I look forward to a very robust budget process where Council will go through the proposed budget with a fine-tooth comb,” Richardson said.
Concerns about the budget also started to trickle in Thursday afternoon.
The Amistad Law Project, which is part of the Alliance for a Just Philadelphia that released a “Philly People’s Budget” this week, commended investments in violence prevention, youth programming, cleaning and greening, and 911 dispatch. But policy director Nikki Grant said she was “deeply concerned” about Parker’s defunding of harm reduction strategies such as needle exchange programs.
“We ask her not to discard decades of proven, evidence-based public health strategies. The city cannot claim to care about people who use drugs while refusing to invest in harm reduction,” Grant said.
She also said the city’s mobile crisis response programs, which send mental health professionals in response to some 911 calls, “desperately need[s]” a boost in funding.
Opportunities to weigh in
A series of budget hearings are tentatively scheduled from March 26 through May 1, according to Council President Kenyatta Johnson. They’ll be held in Council chambers and generally run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Updated schedules will be available at phlcouncil.com.
Certain hearing days will be reserved for public comment. They will be held March 26 and April 24, and a hearing specifically on school district funding will take place May 1. They’ll run 1:30-4 p.m.
People who want to comment can call the Chief Clerk’s Office at 215-686-3407 to be added to the speaker’s list, or can sign up on the day of hearing in City Council’s chambers, room 400 in City Hall.
