City Council last week approved the 3.85 percent, one-year property-tax hike, and parking-meter rates were also increased, to send an extra $53 million to the district. Budget watchers hoped that would inspire the state to fulfill the district's request to restore $57 million to help offset the costs of the city's growing charter-school system.
"I'm disappointed but not surprised," said Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown.
"We were operating around the possibility of optimism. Sometimes it pans out; sometimes it does not."
"We're glad that they got some added money from the state," said city Finance Director Rob Dubow. "Obviously, we'd rather that they got the full $57 million, but they didn't, so now they have to figure out how to make their budget work."
Masch pointed out that lawmakers, while restoring $269 million of the $1.1 billion in statewide public-school funding cut by Corbett, ensured that Philadelphia was the only urban district that did not get special additional funding.
Masch noted that the district's hole could still go beyond the $35 million, considering the district still has not achieved $75 million in savings from its unions factored into the budget.
Staff writers Catherine Lucey and Jan Ransom contributed to this report.
