Mentions

PICA’s April 2025 newsletter highlights the publication “When Is a Budget Cut Not a Budget Cut?”, explaining that not all reductions indicate real service cuts. It also highlights PICA’s oversight role in blog pieces about the PICA Act, and the ICA. Finally, in includes the launch of PICA’s redesigned website.

PICA’s March 2025 newsletter highlights the City’s proposed FY26–30 Five-Year Plan, projecting declining fund balances and operating deficits. It also notes continued staffing shortages and recommends that the City consolidate the Sheriff and Register of Wills offices.

PICA’s February 2025 newsletter highlights a higher-than-planned FY25 fund balance and rising overtime costs, and Executive Director Marisa Waxman’s City Council testimony on improved pension funding and ongoing fiscal risks. Also including, takeaways from PICA’s annual economist forum, and the Board approved PICA’s FY26 Budget, including a year-end fund balance for the first time.

PICA’s January 2025 newsletter highlights the reappointment of all Board members and Executive Director Marisa Waxman, insights into Philadelphia’s budget classifications, and the role of tax-exempt bonds in infrastructure financing. It also includes an update on FY2025 tax revenues and announces the upcoming Board meeting on February 25.

Philadelphia spent another record amount of money on overtime pay in the fiscal year that ended in July, but for the first time in years, it stayed below what it budgeted.

Members of the state board that oversees Philadelphia’s fiscal health said Thursday that they’re concerned the city doesn’t have a large enough financial cushion.

Video interview.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is getting ready to unveil her first budget proposal, and she may have less cash to work with than anticipated.

While Philadelphia still has enormous fiscal challenges and its socioeconomic issues would require billions more to address, the last eight years have put the city budget in a better position.

The state watchdog that oversees Philadelphia’s finances got a change in leadership last week. The Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, or PICA, lost executive director Harvey Rice to retirement.

PICA has been Philly’s fiscal watchdog since it was created as part of a bailout package when the city was on the brink of bankruptcy in the early 1990s.