Greater Harrisburg's Community Magazine

Council Schedules Vote on Updated Recovery Plan

Finance director Bruce Weber, left, and Act 47 coordinator Fred Reddig at a Harrisburg City Council meeting last August.

Finance director Bruce Weber, left, and Act 47 coordinator Fred Reddig at a Harrisburg City Council meeting last August.

City Council scheduled a major vote on updates to the Harrisburg Strong Plan Tuesday night, setting the stage for the most comprehensive agreement to date on the mix of tax policies, personnel goals and government reforms needed to stabilize the city’s finances.

The state has asked the city to adopt the 115-page update in time for negotiations with its police and municipal employee unions, whose current labor contracts expire at the end of the calendar year.

An affirmative council vote later this month would mark the first time the body has endorsed a comprehensive recovery plan, as opposed to the piecemeal votes for related legislation while the city was under state receivership in 2013.

The updated plan would count on increased revenue from a local services tax hike affecting residents and commuters and would have the city weigh a home rule charter initiative that could make recent earned income tax hikes permanent.

It would also direct a greater portion of any money recovered in lawsuits over incinerator-related borrowings to paying down the city’s current debt load.

At a committee hearing Tuesday night, council members expressed some reservations over the updated plan. Ben Allatt, the budget and finance committee chair, said he would like to see more contributions from the state and less reliance on local taxes, while Council President Wanda Williams said she would prefer to have the home rule charter suggestion removed entirely.

But Fred Reddig, the city’s coordinator under the state program for financially distressed municipalities, said he was “optimistic that the plan is going to move forward” and that his team would be able to take it to court for approval.

The vote is scheduled for April 27.

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