Last week, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter released his first budget for the city, which began to address his ambitious inaugural goals - including a reduction in crime and improvement in the city's education system.
The budget aims to address six core issues - public safety, education, jobs, sustainability, ethics and customer service, Nutter's press secretary, Doug Oliver, said.
Nutter's $3.98-billion plan aids his goal of reducing the city's crime rate by 30 to 50 percent in four years. The budget gives the police department an additional $78 million over the next five years, in order to add 400 police officers to the force by the summer of 2009.
Education also received a significant funding increase in the budget. In order to boost the number of college graduates in the city, Nutter set aside an extra $4 million - a 16 percent increase - for the Community College of Philadelphia.
Nutter's budget addresses the issue of Philadelphia's sustainability with a 40-percent increase in funding for Fairmount Park and $25 million for a citywide single-stream recycling program.
Other notable inclusions are the $4.5 billion bond issue intended to solve the city's pension problems and $403 million set aside for contracts with municipal unions, which will be negotiated in the future.
The budget did not initially include reinstatement of funding for Safe and Sound, a non-profit organization that runs after-school programs for the city's students and was a major initiative of Nutter's predecessor John Street.
But yesterday, Nutter asked Safe and Sound to preserve its after-school programs. The funding for the programs is slated to come from savings within Safe and Sound's budget, but Nutter will make "every effort" to find any necessary additional funding in the budget, according to a press statement.
Overall, the budget has received praise from outside analysts.
"It's a very intelligent, creative planning document," political analyst and St. Joseph's University professor Randall Miller said. "It's more than just a budget because it addresses issues in the long term."
In order to raise part of the money needed to cover the budget, Nutter has proposed raising parking taxes in the city - taxes paid by parking garages that are then passed down to customers through the budget.
However, the budget also accounts for $305 million over the next five years in bond revenue and casino fees that are not guaranteed to come through.
It seems that Nutter's priorities for Philadelphia are also shared by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.
In Rendell's 2008 budget, he includes state funding for 100 additional police officers in Philadelphia, as well as over $85 million for basic-education funding for the Philadelphia School District.
Nutter's budget will be debated in City Council over the coming months, and the final version must be officially approved by May 31.
