Today I voted “no” on the the amended FY21 budget, which eliminates the $19 Million increase proposed for the FY21 PPD budget and moves crossing guards and safety officers out of the PPD budget. It includes no real cuts to the PPD for FY21. I believe this is a mistake. (thread)

My City Council colleagues and their teams have worked incredibly hard over the past few months analyzing and amending the F21 budget. As a result, the Operating Budget bill includes a number of improvements.

Restoring funds to the Pennsylvania Immigrant and Family Unity Project, the Housing Trust Fund, adult education programs, anti-poverty programs, & the African American Museum will positively impact many community members most vulnerable to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But I cannot accept a budget that allows the Philadelphia Police Department to make up about 15% of our total operating budget when they have failed to historically make our neighborhoods safer.

The PPD budget has increased at a rate that far surpasses other departments, but violence in our city remains rampant. Displays of excessive force against protestors, hostility toward journalists, and rallying behind vigilante groups further call into question the PPD budget.

If the PPD were our schools, they would have long ago been threatened with closure. It is a false promise that increasing police presence makes communities safer. What our neighborhoods need is investment, resources, and opportunities.

A fair budget is not just an adjusted status quo. We must confront structural problems with structural changes. Changes that cut to the root causes of homelessness, gun violence, chemical dependency, environmental racism, and poverty. Policing and imprisonment are not solutions.

For decades, poor & working class communities of color have been left out of political processes. If we are serious about addressing systemic racism, the ongoing pandemic, economic uncertainty and severe inequality, then we need to start by giving these community members a voice.

To pass a budget with no cuts to the PPD when thousands people are in the streets, occupying buildings, calling, emailing, rising up in grief and rage and saying “defund the police,” is a mistake.

I can't vote for a budget that shows disregard for the voices of our constituents.