| City Finances |
Philly tops PA in tax collection rate
 Philadelphia has posted its second consecutive year of higher tax collections after declines during the recession. The 9.6 percent increase from Fiscal 2010 to the just-ended Fiscal 2011 is due largely to sales and property tax hikes, according to the latest analysis (PDF) from the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority. Even minus the tax increases, Philadelphia’s collections rose about 3 percent. In Pennsylvania, state-tax collections declined slightly from Fiscal 2010 to 2011, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.
The tax collections reflected solid growth in business profits but lower growth in personal income and wages. This dichotomy partly reflects the “jobless recovery,” in which employers may not be hiring or paying employees at previous levels as business grows again, said PICA executive director Uri Z. Monson. In Philadelphia from Fiscal 2010 to Fiscal 2011, business net-profits tax collections leapt 43 percent while wage-tax collections rose just 3 percent. For that reason, the large nonprofit universities and health-care companies that generate wage taxes but not business taxes didn’t help the city’s finances recover much last year. “Eds and meds … was good going in, but it won’t help coming out of the recession,” Monson told us.
The tax collections came in slightly ahead of the city's (and state's) budgeted estimates. Philadelphia will need all the growth it can get, having taken on more debt and deferred some expenses during the recession, such as payments into the public-employee pension fund. Those deferred pension payments started coming due last year and will rise by roughly $58 million in the current 2011-12 fiscal year (PDF).
Pension pays $28M in investment fees
The city's pension fund, at our request, sent us unpublished data on investment fees it has paid to dozens of brokerage houses, hedge funds, currency traders and a variety of financial consultants between Fiscal 2007 and 2010 for investing and managing the city’s multi-billion-dollar public employee pension fund. The annual average came to $28.3 million in fees, which amounted to 0.72 percent of total fund value or $432 per retired and active worker. (On May 31, the fund was worth $4.1 billion, see PDF). The average cost per worker, which is the state's favored measure for comparison, was in line with the amounts that other pension funds pay, according to Pennsylvania’s Public Employee Retirement Commission Executive Director James McAneny. The bigger issue, the regulator said, is whether disclosure rules are identifying and revealing all of the administrative costs of public pension funds. We intend to post the investment fees soon in our data library.
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| Roundup |
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Philly's rank among rankings
 Rankings of cities and metro areas globally seem to come out every week from consulting firms, government agencies, think tanks and magazines on a wide variety of topics. Now, a team at London-based The Business of Cities has sorted and categorized all these lists in City Indexes in 2011 (PDF), a compendium of more than 100 of the leading indexes, benchmarks and rankings between 2008 and 2011. City Indexes assesses the overall field of performance ratings and notes overall findings. Philadelphia's finds a place on a few lists, ranking 9th as a region in GDP globally (PDF), 14th among U.S. cities with the most Energy Star certified buildings (PDF), and 6th in number of high net-worth individuals (report). A website with the rankings is in the works.
Closer look at charter school finances
 A new analysis (PDF) of charter-school finances and borrowing nationwide has found that 78 percent of all charters with loans were operating in the black between 2000 and 2009 and 1 percent of loans had ended in foreclosure. The bond-watcher MuniNetGuide calls that a strong performance. The study was conducted by Ernst & Young, funded by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation and commissioned by, among others, The Reinvestment Fund, a Philadelphia-based backer of charter schools. The study found that “stronger academic performance is associated with better loan performance,” and that “schools in districts where a higher percentage of students are educated in charter schools tend to have better operating performance.” (The report does not list individual schools). See also our 2010 report on Philadelphia schools.
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Philadelphia's Less-Crowded Jails: On Wednesday, July 20, we will release our new report detailing the decline in Philadelphia’s average daily inmate count and the resulting savings in the city budget. It updates our 2010 analysis. We'll hold a public webinar at 10 a.m Thursday, July 21. Sign up here for the webinar.
 Philadelphia 2011: The State of the City: Printed copies of our popular statistical round-up are available free of charge. To request a copy, e-mail info@pewtrusts.org with your name and address.
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| Upcoming Public Events |
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July 15: Human Relations Commission monthly meeting. Details here.
July 18: Police Advisory Commission meeting. Details here.
July 19: City Planning Commission monthly meeting. Details here.
July 19: Economy League roundtable event on 2026: Future Histories of Greater Philadelphia. Details here.
July 20: Philadelphia Commission on Parks and Recreation meeting. Details here.
July 20: Board of Ethics meeting. Details here.
August 10: School Reform Commission planning meeting. Details here.
August 12: Philadelphia Historical Commission meeting. Details here.
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| Our Most-Read Reports |
City Councils in Philadelphia and Other Major Cities: Who Holds Office, How Long They Serve, and How Much it All Costs. Read.
Philadelphia 2011: The State of the City. Read.
A City Transformed: Racial and Ethnic Changes in Philadelphia 1990-2010. Read.
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| About Us |
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The Philadelphia Research Initiative provides timely, impartial research and analysis that help Philadelphia’s citizens and leaders understand key issues facing the city. See our Reports and Briefs page.
We also conduct regular opinion surveys of Philadelphians on key issues, using nonpartisan pollsters who adhere to the highest standards of opinion research. See our Polling page.
Check our News and Data Library for primary research documents and previous newsletters.
The Philadelphia Research Initiative is a project of the nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trusts. We welcome your comments.
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