"Tight Times, Tough Choices" - Workshops Center Piece of City Budget Forums

The Penn Project for Civic Engagement last night hosted its first of four workshops on "The City Budget: Tight Times, Tough Choices."

The forum began with a panel discussion on the city budget, moderated by Chris Satullo of WHYY. The panelist included members of the Mayor's Office, City Budget Office and PICA. The message of the panel, there are no options but to cut spending and services upward $200 million.

The event attracted well over 400 people from across the city, packing the Saint Dominic's gym in the North East where this first forum was held. The night however was not focused on giving the public a sense of why the cuts are happening. After the cuts were briefly justified by the panel the bulk of the forum shifted to gaining public participation in making the "tough choices" the city faces. The packed room was quickly split into 12 groups, chosen at random and facilitated by staff from the Penn Project for Civic Engagement and WHYY. Through the workshop session on the budget the small groups decided what pieces of the budget were "low-hanging fruit" for cuts, "no ways, no hows," "shared pain," and "gut-wrenchers" based on a simplified point system representing the budget.

Most groups did not reach the 100 points of cuts needed to balance the budget.

The Mayor was not in attendance by request of the Penn Project for Civic Engagement. Attendees were assured that their input from the workshop along with written and video testimonials would be shared with the administration.

For more information on the actual process for planning the cuts, see the Mayor's Budget Update.

The next forums will take place:
Wednesday, Feb. 18 — Mastery Charter School, Pickett Campus, 5700 Wayne Ave (Germantown)

Thursday, Feb 19 — St. Monica' Catholic School, 16th and Porter Streets. (South Philadelphia)

Monday, Feb. 23 - Pinn Memorial Baptist Church, 2251 N. 54 TH Street (West Philadelphia)

The forums will run from 7:00pm - 9:30pm

UPDATE: Download the handout from the workshop below.

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