Members of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, who met today at Temple University in Strawberry Square.
Members of Harrisburg’s state-appointed oversight board jumped into the deep end on Tuesday afternoon, as the city took them on a thorough tour of its recent financial history.
Bruce Weber, the city’s budget and finance director, gave the seven-member Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (ICA) a presentation that explained in detail how the city suffered a historic financial collapse and the numerous subsequent measures taken to restore it to solvency.
“It’s hard to absorb all the recent past with the city in one sitting,” said Weber, a non-voting member of the board. “This has to be an ongoing learning process for everyone involved.”
Nonetheless, Weber offered a blow-by-blow review that stretched back to the city’s post-war deindustrialization and population loss. His presentation dug into the details of the past decade, including the incinerator crisis, state receivership, the Harrisburg Strong recovery plan, the numerous sources of debt, and the complex lease of the city’s parking system.
“This was a period of survival,” he said at the meeting at Temple University in Strawberry Square. “The city’s survival as we knew it was at stake.”
He also reviewed how, under the current administration, Harrisburg balanced its budget and stabilized its finances. However, the city now faces the loss of 18 percent of its operating budget in 2024, once its extra taxation authority expires.
The state legislature mandated the ICA as a condition for allowing Harrisburg to exit the state’s Act 47 program for distressed municipalities but retain its extra taxing authority for five more years. The ICA is now tasked with developing a five-year financial plan for the city.
“Fixing an 18-percent hole in the budget is very, very hard,” said meeting attendee Dan Connelly, senior advisor at Marathon Capital Strategies, a Haddonfield, N.J.-based financial advisory firm retained by Harrisburg.
Weber was only able to get through about half of his presentation before the hour-long public portion of the meeting abruptly ended. He will continue it at the ICA’s next meeting, slated for April 24.
“We’re so new, we have a huge learning curve ahead of us,” said ICA Chairman David Schankweiler as the meeting wrapped up.
Otherwise, the ICA approved three requests for proposals (RFPs): one for an executive director, one an auditor and one for a website designer.
The ICA also reviewed the timeline for what it needs to do over the next year. Importantly, the city and the ICA must develop a five-year financial plan by May 27 and send an initial report of recommendations to Gov. Tom Wolf and the state General Assembly by Aug. 25.
