Title
Authorizing the City Council Committees on Children and Youth and on Finance to hold hearings regarding the Philadelphia Parking Authority's unorthodox and contested request for the School District to repay the Parking Authority nearly $11 million.
Body
WHEREAS, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania took over the governance of the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) in 2004, with the express understanding that doing so would provide up to a proposed $45 million in additional revenue to Philadelphia schools. As former Pennsylvania House of Representatives Majority Leader John Perzel stated: "Every dollar we can squeeze from the Parking Authority should be dedicated to educating Philadelphia's children"; and
WHEREAS, Since then, the PPA has fallen short of this promise. Over the last twenty years, the agency's payments to the School District of Philadelphia have been modest and unpredictable, with yearly revenue transfers ranging from $15 million to $0 in 2021; and
WHEREAS, The PPA's revenue projections have repeatedly proved inaccurate, raising concerns about the Authority's ability to manage its finances. In 2014, PPA leadership testified in Philadelphia City Council that if meter rates were increased, the School District of Philadelphia would receive an extra $7.5 million the following year. While City Council agreed to raise meter fees that year with the understanding that the PPA would deliver at least $18 million total to the School District, PPA funding to Philadelphia schools actually dropped in the years following; and
WHEREAS, In April 2018, Philadelphia City Council called for hearings to address the PPA's responsibility to adequately fund the Philadelphia schools, but the PPA was unwilling to attend and engage in this much-needed public conversation; and
WHEREAS, Children and school communities suffer when entities fail to deliver on their promises of school funding. The School District cannot raise its own revenues, and thus has a permanent...
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