Do Something

Make your voice heard on where the City spends your money

Stay informed on how the City runs and let your Councilmember know what you want to see in your community. Find out who represents you on the City Council and reach out, it’s part of their job.

Here you can find instructions on how to sign up to comment on Council meetings and how to speak at public hearings. You can review the agendas on the calendar here and watch meetings live here.

The official website for the Office of the Mayor provides basic information and a contact number, but you can also reach out using this form.

Connect WITH OUR SOCIAL ACTION TEAM


Read More

Solutions for better citizenship

One of the founding tenets of The Philadelphia Citizen is to get people the resources they need to become better, more engaged citizens of their city.

We hope to do that in our Good Citizenship Toolkit, which includes a host of ways to get involved in Philadelphia — whether you want to contact your City Councilmember about the challenges facing your community, get those experiencing homelessness the goods they need, or simply go out to dinner somewhere where you know your money is going toward a greater good.

Find an issue that’s important to you in the list below, and get started on your journey of A-plus citizenship.

Vote and strengthen democracy

Stand up for marginalized communities

Create a cleaner, greener Philadelphia

Help our local youth and schools succeed

Support local businesses

Cheat Sheet

What does the City budget look like?

Philadelphia’s budget for fiscal year 2027 isn’t much different overall from last year. Overall spending for the City’s General Fund totals about $7 billion, about a 4 percent increase from last year’s budget. That increase is much smaller than the 7.5 percent jump during last year’s budget cycle.

The General Fund is the City’s main operating budget. It pays for the basic functions of local government, including police and fire protection, trash collection, parks, libraries, and many other day-to-day services.

Some of our rising costs are include employee fringe benefits, debt service, utilities, rent, and wage increases tied to labor contracts. But the overall increase was held down in part because some large FY26 costs were temporary and are no longer in the budget, including funding reserves for expiring labor contracts and spending for the City’s 2026 special events like the World Cup and America’s 250th birthday celebration.

To see where this year’s budget changed, we broke the budget into major categories, divided those totals by Philadelphia’s population, and compared the adopted FY27 per-person amounts with those in the adopted FY26 budget.

Mayor Parker’s FY27 Budget, By The Numbers

In partnership with Committee of Seventy, a breakdown per person of how the Mayor and City Council will use your money over the next year.

Mayor Parker’s FY27 Budget, By The Numbers

In partnership with Committee of Seventy, a breakdown per person of how the Mayor and City Council will use your money over the next year.

BY Nick Hand

Aug. 04, 2026

Print

The most notable thing about the City of Philadelphia’s new budget for fiscal year 2027 may be how little the overall number changed. Overall spending for the City’s General Fund totals about $7 billion, about a 4 percent increase from last year’s budget. That increase is much smaller than the 7.5 percent jump during last year’s budget cycle.

       Listen to the audio edition here:

The General Fund is the City’s main operating budget. It pays for the basic functions of local government, including police and fire protection, trash collection, parks, libraries, and many other day-to-day services. It also shows where Mayor Parker is directing new money, and where spending is rising because of obligations the City has limited ability to avoid.

This project is powered by
 

This tension is one of the main stories in this year’s budget. Some of the costs that continue to rise are familiar ones, including employee fringe benefits, debt service, utilities, rent, and wage increases tied to labor contracts. But the overall increase was held down in part because some large FY26 costs were temporary and are no longer in the budget, including funding reserves for expiring labor contracts and spending for the City’s 2026 special events like the World Cup and America’s 250th birthday celebration. The end result is a budget that looks relatively steady at the top but has several sub-categories moving in different directions.

To see where this year’s budget changed, we broke the budget into major categories, divided those totals by Philadelphia’s population, and compared the adopted FY27 per-person amounts with those in the adopted FY26 budget. After the chart below, we provide some of the main highlights from this year’s budget.

Here are some of the most substantial takeaways:

    • Fixed costs continue to dominate: As in past years, a sizable share of the budget is shaped by costs the City is already committed to paying, including fringe benefits, debt service, and utilities and rent payments. Each of these spending categories increased between 4 and 9 percent in the adopted budget, adding a total $60 per-person to this year’s budget.
    • One-time costs falling away: Some large FY26 appropriations did not continue at the same level in FY27. That includes $42.9 million for the City’s 2026 special events — about $27 per Philadelphian — that did not carry over. Labor reserve funding, recorded in the Civil Service Commission’s budget, also declined by $56.1 million, or about $36 per person, as less money is needed to cover the costs of recent labor agreements and arbitration awards.
    • Police wage increases: With rising fixed costs offset in part by the end of some one-time FY26 spending, one of the clearest remaining increases, totaling $39 per-person, is in the Police Department. This increase is due nearly entirely to salary increases tied to the new labor contract that was signed in August 2025.
    • New Fire equipment: The Fire Department will receive a $12 per-person budget increase in the FY27 budget, primarily due to one-time equipment spending for self-contained breathing apparatuses.
  • Arts & Culture cuts: The FY27 budget cuts the City’s arts and culture spending by nearly 30 percent due to cuts to the City’s contribution to the Philadelphia Cultural Fund.
  • Economic stimulus spending remains high: Spending on economic stimulus increased dramatically in last year’s budget, from $21 per-person to $64 per-person, and despite a small decrease, remains elevated in this year’s budget at $50 per-person. Much of the increase is due to the City’s Jump Start Philly program, which is designed to reduce tax liability for small businesses.

Sources: City of Philadelphia Adopted FY 2027 Budget in Brief and Adopted FY 2026 Budget in Brief.

Figures represent adopted funding in fiscal year 2027 for the City of Philadelphia’s General Fund budget, adjusted for population using the latest available data. Per-person spending totals are compared to the adopted General Fund budget for fiscal year 2026. Funding for the Early Childhood Education program was separated from the budget for the Department of Human Services and categorized separately.

Nick Hand is a data scientist and public sector technologist. He was director of the City Controller’s Finance, Policy and Data unit during Rebecca Rhynhart’s tenure.

MORE ON THE CITY BUDGET

Related from The Citizen
The Citizen Recommends: Have Your Say in the City Budget
By Natalie Pompilio
Related from The Citizen
The Costs Hidden in Parker’s Housing Plan
By Jade Craig
Copyright City of Philadelphia. Photograph by Dominique Johnson

Advertising Terms

We do not accept political ads, issue advocacy ads, ads containing expletives, ads featuring photos of children without documented right of use, ads paid for by PACs, and other content deemed to be partisan or misaligned with our mission. The Philadelphia Citizen is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization and all affiliate content will be nonpartisan in nature. Advertisements are approved fully at The Citizen's discretion. Advertisements and sponsorships have different tax-deductible eligibility.

Photo and video disclaimer for attending Citizen events

By entering an event or program of The Philadelphia Citizen, you are entering an area where photography, audio and video recording may occur. Your entry and presence on the event premises constitutes your consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded and to the release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction of any and all recorded media of your appearance, voice, and name for any purpose whatsoever in perpetuity in connection with The Philadelphia Citizen and its initiatives, including, by way of example only, use on websites, in social media, news and advertising. By entering the event premises, you waive and release any claims you may have related to the use of recorded media of you at the event, including, without limitation, any right to inspect or approve the photo, video or audio recording of you, any claims for invasion of privacy, violation of the right of publicity, defamation, and copyright infringement or for any fees for use of such record media. You understand that all photography, filming and/or recording will be done in reliance on this consent. If you do not agree to the foregoing, please do not enter the event premises.