Budget Process

The City Charter says Council is supposed to pass the budget by May 31, but the true deadline is June 30. If there's no budget by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, then the city cannot spend money. Last year, City Council members continued their budget deliberations well into June, the first time they had missed the charter date since 2004. With the School District's ongoing money woes and Mayor Nutter's plan to switch the property-tax system in the fall, this year's budget process looks even stickier than the last.

It's a sacrifice if you give something up. It's robbery if someone takes it from you. The city budget proposed by Mayor Rendell is 42 pages long. And while it recommends that the city collect and spend $2.379 billion, nowhere does it say what the taxpayers will buy for their money. For example, Page 15 authorizes the city to spend over $23 million for a "Convention Center subsidy," and over $5 million for the Philadelphia Civic Center. It doesn't say what the "subsidy" is for or how long the taxpayers are going to pay it. City Council has to hold hearings on the budget before anyone can understand what the mayor is really proposing.

Gina Kozek is looking forward to next September when her youngest child will enter kindergarten and be at the same school as her first grader. When she heard a rumor that the Medford Township schools were facing a budget crunch that might change that scenario, she became concerned. So despite the cold, rainy weather last Thursday, Kozek, who has lived in Medford for nine years, went to the Allen School to the second of five town meetings sponsored by the school board. The purpose of the meetings is to include the public in the school budget process, said Assistant Superintendent Robert Elder, who hosted the meeting along with Assistant Superintendent Susan Mintz.

On Tuesday night, Warminster Township manager Andrew A. Mair took the first step in the 1991 budget process when he presented his bosses with a preliminary work sheet for the budget. And, just as the saying goes, the first step appears to be the hardest. Mair had just finished explaining to the Board of Supervisors that the numbers were estimates and not the "real budget numbers," when Supervisor Raymond Regan went on the offensive. "It's not worth the paper it's printed on. It's as worthless as the 1990 budget," said Regan, the board's lone Democrat and a staunch critic of his Republicans counterparts and Mair.

Curt Weldon, freshman Republican representative, offered an insider's view of the federal budget process to about 50 area residents last weekend at an informal town meeting in Haverford. Advocating common sense in the budget process and an attitude summed up by "you can only spend what you take in," Weldon explained why he refused to support any of the four budget proposals, including the one that passed the House. Weldon called the President's budget "unrealistic," and he objected to the Gold Standard aspects of the right-wing budget and the defense cuts of the black caucus budget.

Bridgeport's second council meeting of the new year, on Tuesday night, ended with an hourlong presentation of the history of borough budget problems by Dan Eberhardt, co-chairman of a citizens group that has opposed the council's attempt to permit a trash-baling station to help alleviate local monetary woes. Eberhardt, at the last minute, won the right to appear at what had been planned as a largely ceremonial meeting. Borough solicitor Pierce Anderson said Eberhardt's request, made at a work session Monday night, was in line with a new ordinance confining the right to speak during the public session of council meetings to those who submitted a written request 24 hours in advance.

IF THE RECENTLY ENDED citizen budget workshops showed us anything, it was that ordinary city taxpayers care very much about where their money goes and will come out -by the thousands -to debate the best way to spend it. Maybe if more than a few Council members had bothered to show up at those meetings, they'd have a better clue about how they should conduct their own budget hearings. So far, it seems they have no clue. Last week, Council President Anna Verna barred reporters from a meeting where Council was discussing the idea of holding some budget hearings in places other than City Hall.

My colleagues and I know and respect that Pennsylvanians want to be represented in an atmosphere that is free of secrecy and back-room deals. While many lawmakers have continued to fight hard for openness and transparency in Harrisburg, there are still some trying to shut the door on this year's state budget process - the one place where openness and transparency should be most welcomed. For more than two months, the state budget bill has remained dormant in the Democrat-controlled House Appropriations Committee.

THE PHILLIES' season might be just starting, but City Council is quickly approaching the all-star break: The budget process has almost reached its halfway point, with a little over a month left before Council is likely to vote on Mayor Nutter's spending plan. After three years, city tax revenues have finally stabilized. But looming cuts at the state level make the city's fiscal future far from certain. The decisions made during the budget process affect everyone who works and lives in Philadelphia.

Concerned about the Philadelphia School District's financial problems, City Controller Alan Butkovitz said yesterday he would seek legislation to give his office greater authority to audit school finances. He also plans to call for legislation that would give the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA) or some other state agency the ability to oversee district finances, approving both its annual operating budget and a five-year financial plan. The agency currently monitors city finances.

The City Charter says Council is supposed to pass the budget by May 31, but the true deadline is June 30. If there's no budget by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, then the city cannot spend money. Last year, City Council members continued their budget deliberations well into June, the first time they had missed the charter date since 2004. With the School District's ongoing money woes and Mayor Nutter's plan to switch the property-tax system in the fall, this year's budget process looks even stickier than the last.

Wilson Goode Jr. is the most consistent presence at Council's budget hearings, so it was no surprise that he was the first member at Wednesday night's opening session - and the only one who arrived early. The hearing was in the basement of St. John's A.M.E. Church, in the far corner of Southwest Philadelphia. Once things got started - a full half-hour late - Goode informed the standing-room crowd that he had been baptized in the church upstairs. "Consider this budget process blessed starting here," he said.

FOR THE FIRST time in two years, City Council took its show on the road last night, kicking off the budget season with a community hearing in Southwest Philadelphia. Unlike in past years, there was no galvanizing issue or populist anger, but the standing-room crowd in the St. John's AME Church basement still brought plenty of passion to the microphone. The issues stretched across a range of grievances - crime, jobs, blight, affordable housing, economic development, city services - and touched on some of the problems specific to the Southwest community, such as the historic tensions between African and Caribbean immigrants and their African-American neighbors.

For the first time in two years, City Council took its show on the road Wednesday night, kicking off the budget season with a community hearing in Southwest Philadelphia. Unlike in past years, there was no galvanizing issue or populist anger, but the standing-room crowd in the St. John's A.M.E. Church basement still brought plenty of passion to the microphone. The issues stretched across the range of citywide grievances - crime, jobs, blight, affordable housing, economic development, city services - and touched on some of the problems specific to the Southwest community, such as the historic tensions between African and Caribbean immigrants and their African American neighbors.

For the first time in two years, City Council took its show on the road Wednesday night, kicking off the budget season with a community hearing in Southwest Philadelphia. Unlike in past years, there was no galvanizing issue or populist anger, but the standing-room crowd in the St. John's A.M.E. Church basement still brought plenty of passion to the microphone. The issues stretched across the range of citywide grievances - crime, jobs, blight, affordable housing, economic development, city services - and touched on some of the problems specific to the Southwest community, such as the historic tensions between African and Caribbean immigrants and their African American neighbors.

WANT TO MOUTH OFF about Mayor Nutter's proposed budget? City Council is kicking off the budget process with a neighborhood hearing to get public input. It's at 6 tonight at St. John's AME Church on 71st Street near Yocum, in Councilman Kenyatta Johnson's southwest Philadelphia district. Nutter last week introduced his budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. Critics say his plans to shift to a property-tax system that uses market values is a back-door tax hike - but Nutter argues that he is capturing an increase in property tax values.

HERE'S WHAT WILL make news in Philly this week:   CITY COUNCIL Time to talk budget City Council will hold its first budget hearing of the year later this week, but it won't be in Council's chambers. Residents will be allowed to sit in on the hearing, which will be held at St. John's AME Church, on 71st Street near Yocum, in the 2nd District, at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Council plans to hold other budget hearings at various community locations to offer residents a chance to weigh in on the budget process.

The machinery of City Council is finally starting to grind to life. Up until now, the 17 members - including six freshmen and a new leadership team - have been engaging in what seemed like the legislative equivalent of cocktail party small talk. The three previous regular meetings in 2012 ended briskly. With no legislation carrying over from 2011, Council has yet to seriously debate or pass a bill. This week saw the year's first committee hearing - a bill's first step toward becoming law. The bulk of Council's agenda so far has been carried by leadership and a handful of veteran members who entered the year with clearly defined ideas.

This is an opinion of the Daily News People's Editorial Board, a group of 10 citizens who gather to debate hot topics in the city. To hear more: philly.com/peb. WE THE PEOPLE deserve more of a voice about where our money goes. Over the next few months, our elected leaders will make decisions about the city budget - which means they'll make decisions about city priorities. They'll decide whether we should raise taxes or cut them, invest more in police or spend less on libraries.