Council green-lights Mayor Cherelle Parker’s budget plans, including $100 million for a Northeast Philly drug rehab center

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s approach to her administration’s first city budget was to focus on investing in the popular public safety and cleaning programs she campaigned on and to avoid drama during negotiations with City Council.

In the end, the mayor got what she wanted.

With just hours to go before the deadline for Council to pass budget bills, Council early Thursday gave unanimous initial approval to a $6.37 billion budget that keeps tax rates flat, bolsters funding for quality-of-life programs like code enforcement and trash collection, and borrows $100 million to construct an ambitious drug treatment facility in Northeast Philadelphia, all priorities of Parker’s.

In a late-night interview in City Hall, Parker cast the passage as the “first step” in her administration’s efforts to improve city operations.

“The people in the city of Philadelphia voted for this bold vision,” Parker said. “This is a milestone and helping to make good on my promise to the people, in partnership with the Council president and all members of the City Council, to deliver in a very tangible way.”

The mayor also agreed to add funding for some initiatives championed by Council members, including $19 million for rental assistance, $5 million for a subsidized home repair program, and two property tax relief measures: a tax freeze for low-income homeowners and an increase to the homestead exemption for owner-occupied properties, from $80,000 to $100,000.

The deal also represents a significant moment for City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, who took the helm in January after former President Darrell L. Clarke decided not to seek reelection.

Johnson said the deal was “a win for both of us being new to both of our positions.”

“Because our goals are in alignment in terms of moving the city of Philadelphia forward,” he said, “it’s just sitting down and making sure that my members’ priorities had an opportunity to be a part of this budget process.”

Not everyone was entirely pleased with the compromise. The Alliance for a Just Philadelphia, a coalition of progressive groups, praised the budget’s investments in affordable housing and rental assistance but criticized the $100 million in funding Parker’s controversial drug rehab center, which could house some people who are in treatment involuntarily.

“Council gave the Mayor $100 million in a blank check for new forced treatment and triage center facilities that, based on very little details given about the operation of these facilities, appear to criminalize those facing addiction and homelessness,” the group said in a statement.

The budget is up for a final passage vote on June 13, the last Council session before lawmakers begin their summer recess.

The relatively smooth negotiations were no accident. While some past mayors have used their first budget, when their political capital is highest, to propose ambitious or controversial programs, the proposal Parker unveiled in March contained no significant plans that a majority of Council members were likely to object to.

But growing tensions between Council and the administration this spring over issues unrelated or tangential to the budget threatened to drive a wedge in budget talks, with public disputes surfacing over the administration’s school board nominees, its plans for handling drug users in Kensington, fiscal mismanagement in the homeless services department, and the rocky rollout of the plan to build a new facility for people in addiction.

Parker said that, as new leaders, she and Johnson faced “more scrutiny than ever,” but talks were consistently diplomatic.

“He’s not petty,” she said. “Only petty people allow that kind of politics to get in the way of doing the business for the people.”

And Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, whose progressive politics have not always aligned with Parker’s, spoke alongside the mayor during a news conference Thursday, touting her priorities that ended up in the budget deal, including a property tax freeze for some low-income homeowners.

“I’m so proud of this budget as a whole and to be a part of this team,” she said.

Negotiations came down to the wire due to a handful of sticking points. Parker pulled out a significant victory by securing the full $100 million she requested for the drug treatment facility and shelter, which will be able to house more than 600 people in addiction next to the city’s jail complex.

Administration officials unveiled a proposal for the center to Council members in closed-door meetings Tuesday, and several members expressed reservations about the price tag, which is $134 million over three years. In the end, Council approved $100 million in capital funding this year, and lawmakers can add more in the next budget. The site will be operated by third-party behavioral health providers contracted by the city.

“We’re going to give her some grace and some time,” Johnson said, “and we want her plan to be supportive of those efforts so we can actually really make a significant impact in addressing the drug crisis and the opioid crisis here in the city of Philadelphia.”

Parker said construction work has already begun at the facility to rehabilitate “cottages” on the site, and the administration plans to construct two new buildings.

She said the $100 million in capital funding this year “doesn’t even pay for everything that we need to build at that particular location.”

Other key items in Parker’s budget proved to be popular with Council members, including new quality-of-life programs like a $250 million citywide street paving strategy and a $36 million allocation for “clean and green” initiatives such as cracking down on illegal dumping.

The plan also includes nearly $100 million over five years to support Philadelphia Taking Care of Business, a commercial corridor cleaning program Parker created when she was a Council member.

And it increases the share of property tax revenue that goes to the School District of Philadelphia from 55 to 56%, amounting to about $24 million more for the district this year.

Funding to the Police Department is essentially flat compared to spending over the last fiscal year, but the agreement includes millions of dollars in earmarks for technology and equipment, including for more than 200 new cars, upgrades to forensic testing capabilities, and police-operated drones.

The budget also includes nearly $29 million for grants to community-based antiviolence organizations.

Parker said the funding of her priorities would be a first step in restoring “a sense of hope and pride again.”

“We’re unifying people across the city,” she said. “We unite them through the delivery of high-quality public service that everybody gets, because everybody deserves it.”