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With pension and health care costs rising and debt high, it's likely that Gov. Tom Corbett, in his budget address next week, will be outlining significant cuts to already gutted school budgets, along with more painful cuts to other services and programs that serve Philly residents and particularly Philly's poor. But let's face it, one thing that isn't helping our case any: the massive payouts that the city has been doling out, both to DROP enrollees and to school officials like Arlene Ackerman.
Which is why it seems curious, timing-wise, that we're just now seeing a resolution introduced in Harrisburg urging City Council to take a stand on DROP, and a bill leveraging fines for giving large severance payouts to school administrators. What better way, after all, to make the case for cuts than to point out waste in the funding that's already being administered? (Never mind that a full half of the current budget shortfall is due to shrinking corporate tax collections, or that the state is losing millions on gas drilling taxes.)
Still, politically motivated or not, reform is needed, says Rep. John Lawrence, a Chester County Republican who introduced both pieces of legislation. He says that although DROP is a city matter, he says, "It's a concern for the state legislature on a number of levels. The taxpayers of Pennsylvania commit significant resources toward the city on an annual basis. The pension fund in Philadelphia is funded, I believe, at 47 percent right now. I have to imagine that eventually the city might approach the state and ask for a bailout — and then it would be very much become a concern of the Commonwealth." Interestingly, not a single Philadelphia Representative wanted to dip a toe into the DROP cesspool. Lawrence says he "approached every member of the legislature," so the fact that no local Reps signed on "speaks for itself, unfortunately." (One local Representative, John Taylor, told CP he wasn't familiar with the draft resolution.)
The bill regarding administrator payouts, imposing fines for severance packages over $25,000, (which actually has one Philadelphia sponsor; Rep. Thomas Murt, who covers MontCo but also has a corner of the Northeast in his district), was also inspired directly by Philly headlines. "The situation with Arlene Ackerman, that was egregious, and that is directly a concern of mine," Lawrence says. "I think it should be a concern of really every taxpayer across the Commonwealth.... The state makes a large payment every year in education funds to the city of Philadelphia."
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