While the Philadelphia 2007 report put out Monday by Pew Charitable Trusts has some bright things to say about improvements in the city in the last eight years, it also gives a grave warning about the task that faces the next mayoral administration.
The next mayor will have to renew contracts with its workers in the administraton's first six months and then confront two "'sleeper' issues that have received scant public attention but that specialists are deeply concerned about."
Rising pension and healthcare costs and maintenance to city-owned infrastructure promise to complicate budgeting for the next mayor, according to the report. The report finds that pension and benefits will grow to $842 million by 2009, or 22 percent of the city's $3.8 billion budget.
It would crowd out necessary and desirable budgetary expenditures, threatening even "slow but steady" business tax cuts. As a fiscal monitor said, "It is the 'Blob' that will eat everything."
The report says there are some short-term solutions (like pension plan consolidation), but that "painful and contentious" changes will eventually be necessary, including changing pension plans, reducing health benefits and increasing co-pays.
(P.S.: As a naive youth, I traded Super Mario Bros. 3 for A Boy and his Blob [above art]. Worst. Trade. Ever.)
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