GREAT NO MORE: PHILADELPHIA BROUGHT DOWN BY GOP ECONOMICS
When I wrote in September that Philly needs a bailiut too, our deficit was estimated around $450,000,000; it has since grown far worse, leading to yesterday’s late-breaking horror from city hall.
Mayor plans more cuts as budget worsens:
Mayor Nutter will announce drastic new steps today to close a $1 billion gap in the city’s five-year budget, including the closure of 11 of 54 branch libraries and dozens of city pools, a freeze on tax reductions, reduced hours or programs at more than a dozen recreation centers, and fewer engines at some firehouses, according to sources familiar with his plans.
Until now, Nutter had estimated the budget gap at up to $850 million. “At $850 million, it continues to grow,” he said last night.
To address the even bigger figure, scheduled city-funded cuts in the business and wage taxes will be frozen until fiscal 2015, although wage-tax relief from state casino revenue will be unaffected, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because Nutter “embargoed” the information until today. Layoffs are anticipated.
All city departments will be hit, and some, including the Free Library, the Department of Recreation, and the Fairmount Park Commission, are in line for 20 percent budget reductions, the sources said. Mechanical pickup of leaves will end, forcing homeowners to bag leaves, but that change is not expected immediately. Free bulk-trash pickup, including refrigerators and other appliances, will end. Many side streets will go unplowed unless at least 12 inches of snow is on the ground….
Nutter first warned Sept. 11 that the weak economy had knocked his budget off-track. At the time, the budget gap was estimated to be at least $450 million. That figure has more than doubled as Wall Street melted down and the U.S. economy slowed even further, sending city budget officials scrambling to adjust.
“The city’s budget is a mess,” Cohen said. “It was a mess when Michael Nutter ran for mayor. The recent financial meltdown has exacerbated it and probably accelerated it by a year.”…
The cuts, however unavoidable they might be, seem likely to make it hard for Nutter to achieve some of the big goals he established for his administration when he took office in January, such as halving the dropout rate, doubling the college-degree attainment rate, and changing the tax structure to encourage job creation.
It’s a mess. It’s a total nightmare. At the local bar last night, someone mentioned that 63 out of 72 pools will be closed, and in an earlier version of this article it was made clear that many cuts and closing will be permanent. And you might think I’d be pointing my finger at Mr. Nutter and screaming “WTF??”
Thing is, it’s not his fault. It’s the fault of the GOP and our Senator, Arlen Specter.
The budget reductions were caused by a variety of factors, all of which can be traced to GOP policies supported by the senior senator. The stock market collapse and the frozen capital market are the clearest examples, brought on by decades of deregulation, all supported by Arlen Specter who has voted in favor of every single deregulatory scheme proposed by the GOP, including the disaster known as the credit default swap.
Reduced revenue? Some of that may be blamed on Philadelphia’s shrinking population, but mainly it’s because of the Bush tax cuts, which senator Specter supported. These cuts targeted the wealthiest Americans at the expense of everyone else, slashing the remains of the nation’s “safety net” and ensuring that billions in revenue would no longer flow into state and city coffers, mainly because rich people don’t buy stuff the way working- and middle-class people do.
For that matter, blame Arlen Specter and the GOP policy that he supported that rewards companies for relocating to tax shelters like the Cayman Islands. These policies also sent American jobs overseas to China, India, Korea, and Taiwan: wealthy CEOs save a bundle, while working people are idle.
But good grief, don’t blame Mayor Nutter for trying to save the city by putting off tax cuts we all want. Blame Specter and the GOP for ruining our economy.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:18 am
[...] more: GREAT NO MORE: PHILADELPHIA BROUGHT DOWN BY GOP ECONOMICS Tags: abortion, brendan-calling, climate-change, comics, economy, elections, global-warming, News, [...]
November 12th, 2008 at 9:31 am
[...] like so many others is taking a hit: we’re losing a library, a pool, and a sprayground. A few days ago, I wrote: it’s not his fault. It’s the fault of the GOP and our Senator, Arlen [...]