Philly City Council wants more oversight of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s housing plan. It’s tying up city budget negotiations.
The impasse has forced Council to employ procedural tricks to stay on track to pass the budget on time.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and City Council President Kenyatta Johnson negotiated into the early morning hours Thursday without reaching a deal on the next city budget and the administration’s high-profile housing plan.
The impasse has forced Council to employ procedural tricks to stay on track to pass the budget by June 12, lawmakers’ last session before their summer recess and the start of the next fiscal year on July 1.
Parker so far has given up very little ground in negotiations, according to multiple people familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations. The mayor in March proposed modest cuts to the business and wage taxes for next year, and Council is likely to adopt tax rates at or near her proposal, despite some members and many business leaders preferring more dramatic reductions.
Lawmakers also appear likely to grant the mayor’s request for $800 million in borrowing authority to support her Housing Opportunities Made Easy, or H.O.M.E., initiative, despite last-minute opposition from Councilmember Isaiah Thomas to shrink the size of the bond authorization.
» READ MORE: Councilmember Isaiah Thomas says he ‘fundamentally’ disagrees with Mayor Cherelle Parker’s housing plan
With Johnson’s aid, individual lawmakers have also secured funding for various specific projects and programs during the eleventh-hour talks, the sources said. The administration had plenty of money to play with in negotiations, thanks to increased tax collections and lower-than-expected spending fueling a recent increase in the projection for the current budget’s fund balance, a surplus that is now estimated to be about $882 million and will roll over into the next fiscal year.
Negotiations over the budget itself — the taxing and spending legislation that must be approved by July 1 — are largely settled, the sources said. The final sticking point in negotiations, they said, is a provision Council has added to the bond authorization bill that would give lawmakers more oversight in how the H.O.M.E. money gets spent.
» READ MORE: Council takes up Mayor Cherelle Parker’s $800M housing bond request — with a catch
Finance Director Rob Dubow said Wednesday that the administration accepts that some level of Council oversight will be included in the legislation. But Johnson and the mayor’s team have not reached an agreement on what that will look like.
Johnson has kept a tight circle during the talks, with all Council members’ requests being funneled through his office for a unified negotiating front with the mayor’s administration.
The legislation in limbo is stuck in three separate committees. The H.O.M.E. bond authorization and other city debt proposals are awaiting approval from the Finance Committee, several zoning bills related to the H.O.M.E. initiative are in the Rules Committee, and the budget bills are in the Committee of the Whole, which includes all members.
As the committees held hearings Wednesday, Johnson and Parker’s team negotiated behind closed doors. The private talks continued into the night, with other Council members and staffers having little to do but wander around City Hall, socialize, and wait for a resolution.
When it became clear no deal would be reached, lawmakers recessed all three committees at about 1 a.m. on Thursday morning. Parker stayed in City Hall with her team until 2:30 a.m.
Council planned to reconvene the three panels Thursday morning in hopes of advancing them out of committee ahead of the regular Council meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. That sequence is a key procedural step, because bills must receive first reading in a Council meeting before they can be called up for final passage votes in the following meeting.
But a final deal remained elusive on Thursday morning, and Johnson called for the committees to reconvene again later in the afternoon and proceeded with Council’s meeting.
To keep the legislation on schedule, Johnson plans to recess — but not adjourn — the regular Council meeting when it concludes early Thursday afternoon. Assuming he and Parker reach a deal on Thursday, the committees will then vote to advance the housing and budget bills, and Johnson will resume the regular Council meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday to give the legislation first readings.
This year’s negotiations are proving to be rockier than last year’s talks, which came during both Parker and Johnson’s first years in their current roles. But negotiations over high-profile legislation often extend until the last possible minute, and Council has used the same procedural maneuvers to pass big-ticket items in the past.
Staff writer Fallon Roth contributed to this article.