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CITY OF PHILADELPHIA’S RESPONSE TO THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
Rebalancing Plan for FY09-FY13 Five Year Plan
Thursday November 6, 2008
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction from Mayor Michael A. Nutter
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Actions in Other Major Cities
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The Unfolding Budget Crisis
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How the Nutter Administration Closed the Gap
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Budget Details
Finance & Law 14Mayor’s Office 15Public Safety 17Health and Opportunity 19 Transportation & Utilities 21Economic Development 23 Administration & Technology 25
Appendices
Appendix A: Library Locations 27 Appendix B: Pool Locations 28 Appendix C: Fire Ladder Locations 29 Appendix D: Fire Engine Locations 30 Appendix E: Timelines (separate document) Appendix F: Budget Summaries (separate document)
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November 6, 2008
My fellow Philadelphians,
In the last two months we have witnessed a financial crisis of unprecedented size, scale andsuddenness.Century old investment banks have collapsed. Most of the world’s stock markets have lost athird to one half of their value. Ordinary Americans have lost life savings and significant values in their pension plans. Unemployment is on the rise and consumer confidence hasplunged to its lowest level since measuring began.Philadelphia’s local economy has not been spared the troubles that are overwhelming thenational and global economies. We started the fiscal year with a $119 million surplus. Yetthe dramatic decline in tax collections and the increase in pension costs mean that we arenow facing a deficit of at least $108.1 million this fiscal year and over $1 billion for the life of the Five Year Plan. Addressing this problem requires bold action and we have had to make some very toughdecisions. The scale of the challenge we face does not allow us to take anything off the table or topreserve any sacred cows. This is budget shortfall of enormous proportion, and because theeconomy many not recover quickly, we cannot afford to look for quick, one-time changes. We also rejected the approach of across the board cuts – they are inefficient, random andresult in cutting resources where they are needed the most. We have tried, as far as possible, to follow three guiding principles as we make adjustmentsto the FY09 Budget and Five Year Plan:1.
Preserve core services2.
Minimize the impact of any adjustments on our most vulnerable populations3.
Be mindful of the long-term financial and economic implications of our actions
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