Mayor Nutter Addresses the City Budget, impact on the arts

nutter
from the Philadelphia Cultural Alliance

Thursday, March 19th,  Mayor Nutter took to the podium in a lively City Council meeting to address his five year plan for dealing with the city budget in the face of a mounting deficit.

Tough decisions were made, including two important plans that will depend on authorization from Harrisburg: legislation that would extend the pension fund amortization period from 20 to 40 years, and authorization for City Hall to enact a 1% temporary increase in the sales tax. Another difficult decision was another temporary (two year) increase in the city property tax.

It is worth noting that these difficult decisions intend to have a positive impact: the Mayor, following a series of public budget forums, chose to maintain essential city services and support the livelihood of arts and cultural organizations in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the African American Museum saw their proposed budgets cut by 4%. Direct funding for the Mummers Museum was not renewed. They will be eligible for support from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, along with other nonprofit cultural organizations. The Atwater Kent Museum saw a cut of 14% to their budget. This is due to a decision to implement a 20% cut in FY09 as 10% in the current fiscal year and 10% in FY10, plus an additional 4% cut in the Mayor’s proposed budget for FY10. The Avenue of the Arts saw their appropriation returned to its historical budget level of $80,000. The Philadelphia Cultural Fund maintained level funding for Fiscal Year 2010.

To see a general breakdown of the Mayor’s plan, and further explanation of specific cuts and proposed revenue streams, check out the City’s website
(http://www.phila.gov/budgetUpdate/index.html), where a video of today’s address has also been posted.

Though budget cuts are never good news, arts and cultural organizations fared quite well despite budget woes. The cuts reflected the general attitude of Mayor Nutter’s address – we all must weather the storm and assume some pain. The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, on behalf of our advocates and members, thanks the Mayor for his continued support, and encourages City Council to keep the proposed funding levels.

Over the next weeks we will be asking you to take action and reach out to your constituency in support of this budget.

Stay tuned as City Council weighs in on the proposed budget, and Harrisburg responds to the Mayor’s requests.

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