Persistent staffing shortages have caused Philadelphia to underspend by over $200 million on employee wages across FY23 and FY24, as actual vacancies far exceeded budget assumptions. The report weighs whether vacancy rates in future budgets should be revised upward to improve transparency and flexibility. Regardless of the approach taken, clearer and more consistent disclosure of…

PICA’s Measuring the Accuracy of Spending Projections issue brief assesses Philadelphia’s ability to project expenditures, finding it is the second-most accurate among 15 peer cities, with a mean error of ±2.0%.