Mayor Parker presents $6.7B city budget proposal touting $800M housing plan, 'historic' tax cuts, extended-year Philly school pilot expansion

During her first year in office, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker was criticized by some road safety and public transit advocacy groups for cutting $1.5 million from the city’s Vision Zero traffic safety program.

The administration always insisted it wasn’t a real cut, because $1.25 million was added to the Streets Department’s budget to implement traffic calming measures. (Even taken by that logic, however, $1.25 million is less than $1.5 million.)

“I do wholeheartedly approve this message,” Parker said at the closing of her city budget address Thursday.

“I want you to know that my name is Cherelle L. Parker, and I am the 100th mayor and first woman to lead Philadelphia in 341 years,” Parker said in the final moments of her 90-minute speech that sprawled across various topics including public safety and health, taxes, education, and housing.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker on Thursday cast her tax cut plan as "historic and unprecedented," saying that she wanted to dramatically reduce the business tax in an effort to boost the local economy.

"This proposal will spur businesses to grow and new ones to locate here," Parker said in her budget address to City Council.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said that in the wake of the “shock and awe” of the Philadelphia 76ers' surprise decision to stay in South Philadelphia, she will be making the revitalization of East Market Street a priority.

The long debated, and highly controversial effort to build a basketball arena on East Market Street was cited by city officials as key to the renewed fortunes of the beleaguered shopping district.

Parker is proposing raising parking rates in Center City from $3 to $4 an hour, the first parking rate increase in more than a decade.

The increase, if approved by City Council, would provide additional revenue to both the school district and the city.

Parker is proposing nearly $300 million in new funding over the next five years to continue construction and operations at the Riverview Wellness Village, her administration’s new city-run rehabilitation housing for people recovering from drug addiction.

The facility opened in January after the mayor secured $100 million in funding last year to kickstart construction.

The Parker administration is expanding its so-called “extended-day and extended-year” program in Philadelphia schools by 15 more schools — 10 district and five charter.

It’s not immediately clear which schools the city will be adding.

At the midway point in her speech, Mayor Parker touted the $800 million she has proposed that the city pump into housing policy under her administration.

Half of the money would become available almost immediately.

Parker highlighted that her administration is proposing setting aside more than a half a billion dollars to go into the city’s labor reserve as the city negotiates new contracts with the four major municipal unions.

She vowed that her administration’s labor negotiators would “reach fair and fiscally responsible multi-year agreements.” Last year, Parker’s first in office, her administration negotiated one-year contract extensions with each union as opposed to typical new contracts that last for several years.

Martin Luther King Jr. Drive will fully reopen once its namesake bridge behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art is completed, likely by September, Parker said.

The bridge has been under reconstruction since 2023 and was previously expected to be completed in summer 2025. The 690-foot structure, built in 1966, connects Eakins Oval to MLK Drive.

In an effort to increase police accountability in the city, Parker said every Philadelphia Police officer will be outfitted with a body-worn camera by the end of 2025 and dash cams will be installed in every patrol car.

Parker called the move a “critical tool” and noted Pennsylvania State Police’s use of this safety infrastructure.“We know that these investments protect our officers and the public, and I've always made it clear I fully support every police officer who's on the front lines protecting and serving Philadelphians, so long as they do so without any misuse or abuse of their constitutional authority,” Parker said.

Parker briefly alluded to the national political climate in her budget address Thursday after reviewing her administration’s accomplishments from the past year.

"I know there is uncertainty in the air right now," Parker said. "People don't know what to expect from their government, and uncertainty can breed fear. I want the people of Philadelphia and our city employees to hear me: Your city is here to keep you safe and to safeguard your basic rights.

The Philadelphia Police Department’s new $50 million forensics lab will be located on Market Street in University City, a decision the city made after spending years securing funding and evaluating real estate options.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker announced the location of the new crime lab Thursday during her budget address, saying the new lab to be located at 4101 Market St. will “mark a giant step forward in forensics technology and crime solving ability for our police department.”

Parker is proposing expanding diversion programs for people arrested for low-level offenses, including the administration’s new “neighborhood wellness court” based in Kensington.

Currently, the court operates just one day a week — she is proposing $2.7 million in spending that would allow it to be open five days a week.

After thanking her family and recognizing city employees, Parker kicked off her address by touting accomplishments from her first year in office, starting with public safety and outlining steps she says led to sharply declining rates of homicides and gun violence.

She ticked off efforts funded in her first city budget, including an increased number of police officers walking foot beats and millions of dollars in funding for grassroots community organizations that fight violence.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday is in Council chambers Thursday to attend Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s budget address.

Sunday, elected in November, is the lone Republican from the state government in attendance. The mayor’s office invited all state-level government officials, and Sunday was the only Republican who appeared to take it up on the offer.

Philadelphia City Councilmember Brian O’Neill, the lone Republican in the body, bantered with his colleagues across the aisle Thursday morning as Council makes its way through its regular session ahead of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s budget address.

At the start of the session, O’Neill — one of Council’s quietest members — called attention to Council President Kenyatta Johnson accidentally skipping over newly-elected Democratic State. Sen. Sean Dougherty when Johnson was welcoming dignitaries (who were “on time”) ahead of Parker’s address.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has transmitted the legislation for her $6.7 billion budget proposal to City Council, setting the stage for her high-profile address to lawmakers later Thursday.

The legislation includes the budget itself — which dictates how much money each department gets — along with budget-adjacent bills changing city tax rates, laying out the city's five-year financial plan, setting a capital budget program for the next six years, and increasing some fees.

City Council’s chambers were packed Thursday morning ahead of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s budget address as dozens of elected officials, administration members, business leaders, and organized labor leaders gathered for the annual speech.

The mayor is expected to speak at about 11 a.m. Dozens of her deputies, including Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, will be seated to her left, while a bevy of current and former electeds will be at her right. Among them: state lawmakers, including longtime state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams and state Sen. Sharif Street, chair of the Pennsylvania Democrats, as well as municipal officials like City Controller Christy Brady and Sheriff Rochelle Bilal.

When Philadelphians think about why their city is plagued with a persistently high poverty rate, frequent public safety crises, and often-deficient city services, the business income and receipts tax may not be top of mind for many.

But to hear some people in and around City Hall talk, reforming or eliminating Philadelphia’s unique business tax, known as BIRT, could be the key to revitalizing the city.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is set to propose nearly $300 million in additional spending over five years to support construction and operations at the city-run drug addiction recovery house in Northeast Philadelphia, which opened in January and is a key part of her signature plan to end the open-air drug market in Kensington. About $100 million of that money is in this year’s budget.

Council already approved $100 million in funding last year to kick-start building on the site, which is adjacent to the city’s jail complex. When the facility is complete, it is expected to hold more than 600 recovery beds, doubling what is currently available in recovery houses citywide.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is making housing policy a centerpiece of her second year in office in pursuit of her goal of building or repairing 30,000 homes in her first term.

To that end, she plans two $400 million bond issuances — costing $166 million in debt service in the next five years — to support a variety of new and expanded programs. The administration also wants to increase the real estate transfer tax to help pay for the housing initiative, from 3.278% to 3.578% of the sale price or assessed value of a property.

In her first budget proposal, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker punted on engaging in the decades-long debate over Philadelphia’s unusual tax structure and proposed no tax rate changes. This year, she’s entering the fray.

Parker is proposing a small cut to the city wage tax and major changes to the business income and receipts tax, or BIRT. Those proposals broadly align with the recommendations from a report released two weeks ago by the Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission, which was convened by Council and called for the complete elimination of BIRT in eight to 12 years.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker last month convened representatives from Philadelphia’s major educational and medical institutions with a simple message: The city needs your help.

The Feb. 20 meeting included lobbyists or other representatives for Drexel University, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Temple University and its health system, the University of Pennsylvania and its health system, and Thomas Jefferson University and its health system, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private gathering.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s proposal for the next city budget will include cutting Philadelphia’s business tax, spending $100 million more on a new drug recovery center in Holmesburg, and borrowing $800 million for a major housing initiative, according to people who were briefed on what will be included in the mayor’s budget address to City Council on Thursday.

The mayor will also propose increasing the real estate transfer tax and repealing the construction tax when she delivers her high-profile speech in Council chambers, kicking off three months of negotiations between the administration and lawmakers over the fiscal year 2026 city budget, which takes effect July 1.