Mayor John Street will issue his annual budget address next month, and he has expressed his intention to make several cuts in order to curb the city's ever-increasing deficit, which has reached nearly $150 million.
Street has been meeting with City Council members but has not yet specified which programs will be most affected by the cuts. March's budget report will reveal the details of his plan.
"The mayor has asked every department to come in and talk to him about what their targets are," Street spokeswoman Barbara Grant said.
"We are looking at how to be more cost efficient in delivering high-quality services and what we consider our core missions."
According to Grant, these core elements will not be affected by the cuts. She cited the mayor's Safe Streets anti-drug program.
"The police department for sure is not going to suffer any cuts."
Councilman David Cohen is less enthusiastic about this idea and has said that the cuts are a result of the mayor not spending city money wisely.
"I'd like [Street] to give us a full account of the money he spent on Safe Streets and how we could afford it," Cohen said.
Cohen is equally skeptical of the upcoming budget cuts in general. "Was [Street] caught asleep at the switch when things went bad, or have they been bad for a while?" he said.
"He seems to me to be in a very bad position to want cuts, because he's spent money without abandon, without consulting [the] council. He seems to regard himself as emperor of Philadelphia, spending as he sees fit."
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell said she is "frightened to death" of the upcoming budget cuts. She expressed concern for her efforts to open the public library on 40th and Walnut streets.
"It's taken us a long time to get our library open. I'm hoping it won't be affected," she said.
"I'm hoping that the mayor will take into consideration that we do everything we can to get as many volunteers as possible, and I hope the cuts don't affect our basic services."
Anxiety surrounding where the cuts will be made has increased for City Council members. Earlier this week, Councilman Michael Nutter, a Democrat who often disagrees with Street, expressed concern that many of the cuts would occur in his district. He has since scaled back those remarks.
"We don't know what the cuts are yet. We keep hearing all about this doom and gloom," Nutter said.
Nutter added that he is concerned about the city's financial problems in general.
"We have to look at our spending priorities and how we can make the government more efficient, raise revenues and make the city more business-friendly," Nutter said. "All of these issues need to be addressed before we start making cuts."
