Nutter's budget proposal criticized

Mayor Michael Nutter's budget proposal - which faces criticism from the City's unions - will be scrutinized in City Council public hearings until mid-May.

Proposed last week, the budget contains a "number of difficult choices," said Luke Butler, deputy press secretary to the Mayor, but the level of public engagement demonstrated that citizens will support the decisions.

However, Bob Bedard, spokesman for the union District Council 47, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said all sources of additional revenue should be explored before services are cut. Otherwise, he said, there will be "tension between the City and the unions."

Bedard said District Council 47's members were largely white-collar city workers.

He added that until the mayor presents a contract proposal, there is nothing concrete for the unions to respond to and that reacting now is just "spinning our wheels."

In a speech last week, Nutter said he asked unions to encourage voluntary furlough days - days off work without pay.

Bedard called furlough days "really just a service cut under another name."

Nutter's budget also proposes a wage freeze and greater personal contribution to health care for all City employees.

"I'm asking our public employees to contribute more of their salary towards their pensions and health care," he said in his speech.

But according to Bedard, Nutter has essentially proposed a pay cut.

"If you are taking more out of your pocket but not putting more in, that's a pay cut," said Bedard.

He added that Nutter "hasn't done anything" to find additional revenue, and only appointed a task force on tax policy last Tuesday.

District Council 47's President Cathy Scott suggested in a speech in February that the City appoint a "revenue tsar" with the power to collect outstanding taxes.

Bedard said Nutter "scoffed at the idea . before embarking on public-relations stunts."

Bedard also said programs such as Payment in Lieu of Taxes - in which publicly funded, charitable organizations that don't pay taxes give the City some compensation - would generate millions of dollars from institutions such as Penn, but the City has let them "fall apart."

Nutter also proposed applying to the Pennsylvania Employee Retirement Commission "asking that the Philadelphia Pension Fund be declared 'severely distressed.'"

Such status for the fund would allow the City to adopt new plans for future employees, PERC executive director James McAneny said.

He said the assessment process involves scoring on a number of financial qualifiers with the total score determining the level of distress.

Butler said "the mayor is fairly confident that the City's fund will be declared severely distressed."

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