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November 18, 2004
TO THE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE
COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA:
I am returning herewith as unsigned Bill Nos. 040785 and 040786, passed by the Council on October 28, 2004. These bills amend the City's FY05 Capital Budget and FY05-FY10 Capital Program to add $7 million in the FY05 Capital Budget for the Recreational Facilities improvement allocation that is allocated to District City Council members.
Between FY99, when District Council members first received an allocation of $1.2 million of Capital Budget funding each, and FY04, the City's Capital Budget declined by more than a third. The Capital Budget has been shrinking consistently since the mid-1990s because of the City's dwindling legal debt capacity under state law, as well as our increasing overall debt burden, yet City Council was not asked to share in that reduction until the FY05 Capital Budget. The City Planning Commission estimates that a city of Philadelphia's size, age and population requires double the amount of the current capital program to address our physical infrastructure needs. Fewer and fewer of these needs are being addressed, while City Council's capital allocation has remained constant. As a result, Council's share of this shrinking pie has increased from 9 percent of capital dollars in FY99 to 15 percent of capital dollars in FY04.
Over this same time period, the annual allocation for road resurfacing in the Streets Department's allocation has dropped from $14 million to $11 million. This is half of what the Streets Department estimates is required to maintain over 90 percent of our roads in very good or good condition, yet we are providing more money to District Council members to save for Recreational Facilities projects than we are to maintain city streets. The City's annual Citizen Survey of 1,100 residents has identified street repair as one of the top five most important services that the City provides, cited more often tha...
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