March 14, 2024
Colleen Claggett/for PhillyVoice
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker's budget earmarked millions for increased police presence and sanitation initiatives but will not put money toward safe injection sites.
As she creeps toward her 100th day in office, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker addressed City Council today to discuss her first budget recommendation and a proposed five-year plan.
Parker said she's feeling good about the city's fiscal health, as it continues to make contributions to a reserve and pension fund, and has leftover money from the American Rescue Act. Her new budget, which still needs approval from the council, includes no new taxes for city residents.
Parker's proposed budget would invest $2 million over the course of five years in the city. The funding heavily hits on policing, public safety, sanitation, SEPTA and more.
“This is my first budget proposal as your mayor and it's big and it's bold," Parker said in her address. "I’m calling it the 'One Philly Budget,' and it funds the promise that I made to the people of our city, that if we all work together, we could make Philly a safer, cleaner, greener city with access to economic opportunity for all.”
While most of the budget proposal was about what programs would receive funding, Parker made it clear that there was one initiative that wouldn't see any money.
"While I’m the mayor, I will fight tooth and nail to ensure that not one city dollar is invested in the distribution of clean needles," she said. "It was trailblazing while we did it — and I still think it's an important part of the harm-reduction strategy — but we can’t afford ... to appropriate our very scarce resources to do it.”
She said she does, however, support the efforts of the Kensington Caucus — a group taking aim at the addiction crisis in the neighborhood — and access to economic opportunities for those experiencing addiction and houselessness to put them on "the path to self-sufficiency." A few days ago, Parker ended support for a project that would have offered tiny houses as an effort to fight homelessness.
Parker said public safety was her top priority, proposing $33 million in new operating investments and saying she fully supports the Philadelphia Police Department and is "unapologetic" about it. The funding would go toward increased community policing, new cars, investigative equipment upgrades and a new forensics lab.
She also plans to add 400 new officers every year and increase the number and frequency of recruiting classes. However, according to Parker, there will also be a zero-tolerance policy for any misuse or abuse by law enforcement, and $3 million will be allocated to the Police Oversight Commission.
With that added policing, Parker said the city will increase enforcement against property and quality-of-life crimes such as retail theft, illegal ATV use and car meetups.
"Going in a store and stealing $499 worth of merchandise and not expecting that there will be any consequences is not okay anymore," Parker said. "We will enforce the law."
Simultaneously, there will also be $24 million made available in grants for community-based organizations trying to lower crime and gun violence. She also said she supports restorative justice programs, trauma-informed care and therapy, and conflict-resolution resources for young people.
Parker allocated $36 million for this year and more than $246 million over the course of the five-year plan for cleanup and sanitation programming.
She vowed to tow more than 10,000 abandoned cars, and clean and seal more than 900 vacant buildings this year. Her budget also set aside $18 million for residential cleaning program, with dedicated cleaning crews for each council district, including equipment, trash trucks and a team leader. She also said the city would work with faith-based groups, community development corporations and the horticultural society for green space cleaning with the Same-Day Pay employment program.
Across the city, that means hiring 100 new sanitation workers and 150 cleaning ambassadors and buying 60 trash compactors, plus $8 million for cleaning residential streets near commercial corridors. Over five years, she also wants to invest $11 million to pilot twice-a-week trash collection programs in neighborhoods that struggle the most with trash and litter, and collect data to keep track of the progress.
She wants to launch a new illegal dumping crew and shorten response time when residents file complaints. Plus, she noted more surveillance cameras for dumping hotspots (and staff to monitor them) and 1,500 "big belly" trash and recycling cans and staff so that they're emptied regularly.
Finally, she wants to plant 15,000 more trees in under-resourced neighborhoods to reduce heat islands and continue the city's Rebuild program.
The budget set aside $130 million over five years for economic investments and opportunity for both city employees and those wanting to build businesses in Philadelphia.
Included in that is $1 million each for the Accelerator Fund, which helps provide access to capital for underrepresented developers, and the Innovate Capital Growth Fund for diverse entrepreneurs. But the largest business investment is $14 million to the “PHL Open for Business” initiative, streamlining the process to open a business.
She also allocated "tens of millions" for expanding the Philadelphia Taking Care of Business Clean Corridors Program and "connecting 400 residents to economic opportunity." Another $10 million was set aside for workforce development and apprenticeship programs from building trades, carpenters and unions.
Parker also hopes to establish a City College for Municipal Employment with the Community College of Philadelphia, in partnership with the city and the School District of Philadelphia. Students in this program will get a stipend while in school and gain access to city jobs after graduation.
For city workers, the budget includes $14 million in operating investments to support current workers and recruitment, but she said she's also working on a re-employment opportunity for retired city workers to come back to the office while still collecting their pension. Earlier this month, she said she plans to bring all municipal employees back to the office.
"City workers are people, not assets and my administration will treat you with respect," Parker said.
Though it is not part of the budget, as the city can't determine its own minimum wage, Parker said she supports the $15 per hour minimum wage increase proposed by Gov. Josh Shapiro (D). Additionally, she called for adding 30,000 new housing units and moving inventory stuck in the city's land bank to build homes and community spaces.
For students, Parker set aside $3.2 million for youth sports and athletic associations.
For 2024, the plan includes $24 million for operating investments in education, which will be used for full-day and year-round schooling efforts with "schedules that work for working families." This will begin rollout in 20 schools in the fall through the Office of Education.
All in all, education efforts will get almost $140 million over the five years, Parker said, and $129 million of that is earmarked for the School District of Philadelphia.
"For far too long, our students have struggled with far too little," Parker said. "The days of settling for crumbs, they're over. Our students deserve a full loaf and they're going to get one."
Another $3.2 million was also set aside for youth sports and athletic associations.
One of the largest chunks of the budget went to transportation, including both public transit and Philadelphia streets. Parker set aside $450 million over five years for street paving and said $250 million of that will be spent by the end of 2025. That would mean 130 miles of Philadelphia street would be repaved each year, which she said is double the current rate.
For non-drivers, Parker's budget adds $117 million in operating funds for SEPTA as it continues to face a deficit. She also wants the transit agency to put forward an "aggressive" plan to make SEPTA's buses and trains cleaner and safer, matching priorities in other parts of the plan.
In her address, she said she hopes that this budget will be a show of support for the city.
"The people of Philadelphia are tired of politicians getting elected and making good speeches," she said. "They want to see their tax dollars at work in their neighborhoods. They want to see us do things differently."
