So how much more will it cost you to live or do business in Philadelphia in the next fiscal year? Almost 10 percent more, according to Mayor Michael Nutter’s final city budget.
But, you know, this is an election year, and that means the members of City Council likely will have lots to say about what taxes will be like after Nutter leaves office. After all, the entire council is up for election and the new council — and new mayor — will take office in 2016 half-way through the fiscal year. So, who is to say how much of this mayor’s 9.34 percent property tax hike will remain intact.
Gov. Tom Wolf wants tax relief for Philadelphia. The city wage tax will be lowered about 0.5 percent, but Wolf wants the state income tax to go up.
Joe DeFelice, executive director of the Philadelphia GOP, called what the governor and mayor are doing a “bait and switch.” Wolf and Nutter, he said, are offsetting revenue losses from the wage tax decreases with a state income tax hike of about 20 percent and a city property tax boost of 9.34 percent.
Nutter said there are almost $90 million in added expenditures in the FYI 2016 budget. The majority of new spending, according to City Hall, will go to $78 million for employee costs including pensions, healthcare and arbitration awards.
The mayor said the property tax millage rate would be increased to 1.47.
The budget would give $105 million to the schools. The state kicks in $206 million. The mayor set aside $169.6 million in city-supported capital investments.
Also in the budget, according to the mayor’s office:
• $5.5 million in new funding to strengthen the Department of Licenses & Inspections as recommended by the Special Independent Advisory Commission in its report, A Plan for a Safer City. This new funding will rise to $10.8 million total by FY18.
• $3.9 million for Philadelphia Parks & Recreation to launch a new office dedicated to youth workforce learning and development through expansion of its existing summer jobs program, the establishment of a year-round career development, and the creation of a transitional jobs program.
• $18 million for the Office of Fleet Management to replace aged vehicles in the Police Department, and large vehicles and apparatus in the Fire and Streets departments.
• $3.6 million for the Police Department to expand the use of body cameras on officers and to support mandatory training and equipment including 1,300 new bulletproof vests.
• $6 million for improvements to Police and Fire stations and other facilities.
• $3.4 million for Community College to offset the need to increase tuition as well as funding capital needs.
• $1.5 million for improvements to various Free Library branch facilities, which represents the third year of funding for libraries totaling $4.5 million overall.
• $18.7 million for improvements to Philadelphia Parks & Recreation facilities across the city.
• $5 million for improvements to neighborhood commercial corridors including curbs, sidewalks, lighting, landscaping and parking.
• $20 million for the Streets Department to pave neighborhood streets throughout the city. This represents a $4 million increase over FY15.
• $31.9 million for the Office of Innovation and Technology to make citywide technology improvements, including creating a data warehouse for the Department of Revenue that will help the city capture even more delinquent tax revenue: $5.7 million in FY16 and a total of $20 million over the Five Year Plan.
• $22 million for the purchase of new voting machines. ••
