Legal News

No City Council Hearings on Slashed Budget

By Brian Harris

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

Philadelphia City Council will not hold hearings on a revised budget plan that will slash city services from cops on the street to the city courthouses being open. Much of city government will be reduced unless approval is given in Harrisburg to a bill that would permit the city to raise sales taxes and adjust pension payments.

The City Council hearings were waived so the city could deliver a reduced budget on time to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, which must approve the city's five-year fiscal plans to make sure the plans are balanced, according to a letter City Council President Anna C. Verna sent today to Mayor Michael Nutter and others. PICA determined the city should submit a new plan by the end of the month.

The pension and tax bill is pending in the state Senate, and the state Senate might vote on the bill as soon as Wednesday. Verna added her voice to those asking for approval of the bill.

"This revised plan is terrible," Verna wrote. "It is cruel. It dashes the hopes for a vital, thriving city ... I know we all hope that this proposed revised plan ultimately becomes merely a description of what might have been -- and nothing more."

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on August 24, 2009 (boomark / email).