Philly’s budget ignores the crises bearing down on our communities

Philadelphia is standing on the brink of a major crisis, and our city’s leaders are acting like it’s business as usual.

At a moment when federal programs are being gutted by a far-right MAGA movement hell-bent on punishing poor and working-class people — especially Black, brown, and immigrant communities — City Council voted through the first passage on the budget that reads like a shrug.

This is not a normal moment. We don’t need a normal budget. We need a bold budget that protects us.

Right now, the federal government is slashing Medicaid, assistance for food and housing, and money for education. These are programs that tens of thousands of Philadelphia families rely on just to survive.

The Trump administration has openly declared war on immigrant communities, plotting mass deportations and targeting sanctuary cities like ours with legal and financial retaliation.

The truth is this: The federal government is turning its back on poor and working-class people.

These federal cuts and threats to our communities are going to hit Philadelphia hard. Instead of meeting this moment with bold action, our city’s leaders are proposing policies that would deepen the harm.

Chief among them? A plan to massively cut the city’s Business Income and Receipts Tax. This is a gift to big corporations and wealthy business owners that would blow a $2 billion hole in city revenue over the next decade.

Cutting taxes that disproportionately benefit the rich while federal aid collapses is a one-way ticket to austerity. It will force painful choices in the years to come, just when our communities need support the most.

This isn’t just about dollars and cents. It’s about what kind of city Philadelphia is going to be — and who it’s going to be for.

We’ve seen this story before. In the push for the 76ers arena, city leadership bent over backward to accommodate billionaire developers, while ignoring working-class people, immigrants, and Black residents of Philadelphia. The people fought back and won. But that fight revealed a deeper crisis — one that this budget fails to address.

We’re watching our neighborhoods change block by block, as longtime residents are pushed out to make way for luxury condos and high-end development.

In Germantown, where one of us was born and still lives, the cost of housing is skyrocketing, and longtime Black neighbors are being displaced. This is happening all across the city, from Point Breeze to Sharswood to West Philadelphia.

This budget does nothing to stop that. Despite Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s HOME initiative passing through Council, the plan offers no real investment in deeply affordable permanent housing. No new commitments to low-income renters or homeowners trying to stay in their homes. No vision for reversing decades of disinvestment in our communities and public spaces.

Meanwhile, our immigrant neighbors are scared to leave their homes, living under the threat of mass deportations. We cannot let that happen on our watch. Philadelphia must reassert its commitment to being a true sanctuary city. That means refusing to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It means investing in services that protect and uplift immigrant communities. And it means fighting, not folding, when federal officials try to intimidate us.

The truth is this: The federal government is turning its back on poor and working-class people. If Philadelphia doesn’t step up, our city’s most vulnerable residents will be left to fend for themselves.

The Alliance for a Just Philadelphia has laid out a clear alternative: a people’s budget that invests in housing, resources for immigrant communities, libraries, parks, mental health care, worker protections, higher public education, and fully funded city services. A people’s budget asks the richest people in this city to pay their fair share — because they can, and because we can’t afford not to.

Philadelphia is not a playground for billionaires. It’s a city of workers, immigrants, caregivers, students, neighbors, and families. If we want to keep it that way, we need elected officials who understand the stakes and act accordingly.

We need bold leadership. We need a budget rooted in care, equity, and our collective well-being. This budget does not offer a vision for the future of Philadelphia where everyone is safe, healthy, and whole — and we’ll keep speaking out until it does.

Seth Anderson-Oberman is the executive director of Reclaim Philadelphia, a former candidate for City Council in the 8th District, and a former union organizer for 25 years, most recently with SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. Erika Guadalupe Núñez is a queer immigrant, artist, and cultural organizer currently serving as the executive director of Juntos.