After weeks of negotiation and just hours before Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter would have been forced to implement the famed "Doomsday" budget, the Pennsylvania House and Governor Ed Rendell finally did the right thing yesterday and passed HR 1828, designed to give Philadelphia $700 million in budget relief and close the final holes in what had once been a $2.4-billion deficit.
The bill will, quite basically, save Philadelphia. Without the funds - which will come from an increase to the citywide sales tax, from 7 percent to 8 percent, and a reprieve on city pension payouts for the next two years - Nutter would have been forced to start operating on the "Plan C" budget. Nicknamed the "Doomsday" budget, its provisions included closing all libraries, laying off 3,000 city employees and shutting down the court system. Sanitation collection would slow to once every other week. Pink slips were to be distributed today. Nearly every aspect of life in Philadelphia would be affected, including sanitation workers, firefighters, and police officers.
Nutter's efforts to secure this funding stand out. The budget has been a problemantic area for the city for well over a year now, and Nutter has been trying to close the gap in the budget most of that year. Especially determined to avoid invoking Plan C, he's relentlessly lobbied Harrisburg to pass this funding. As the Democrats and Republicans in the House split hairs and became embroiled in partisan bickering, Nutter was able to cut through the thick and achieve what even yesterday seemed improbable.
