The biggest item in Philadelphia Mayor Nutter’s yearly budget request to City Council this week won’t be for police, prisons, or parks.
It will be for more than $500 million to stoke Philadelphia’s pension system, which pays retirement checks to ex-city workers and their survivors.
That pension tab will eat nearly $1 of every $5 the city raises from real estate, wage, business, and sales taxes. That’s up from $1 of every $16 a decade ago, noted city Finance Director Rob Dubow.
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For everyone wondering why Philadelphia public schools are in such terrible financial shape, this is a very important clue.