Philadelphia spent $4 million more on overtime pay in 2023 than the year before — but remained under budget

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia spent another record amount of money on overtime pay in the fiscal year that ended in July, but for the first time in years, it stayed below what it budgeted. That includes actual savings in the overtime police get to testify in court.

The $262 million the city spent on overtime is $4 million more than last year — but it’s $8 million less than what was in the budget. The state agency that oversees Philadelphia’s budget says that’s reason to celebrate.

For years, city budget watchdog Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, or PICA, has flagged the city’s overtime spending as a major concern. Overtime was consistently over budget and set new records in 2020, 2022 and 2023.

“The city has done, clearly, a better job of estimating what’s going to be spent,” said PICA Executive Director Marisa Waxman.

She highlights one area of real savings — court overtime for police officers, which has dropped by $8 million dollars over five years.

“Over the same time period there were pay raises, so even if the number of hours stayed the same, we would have seen an increase in costs,” she said. “So, to have a real dollar decline is impressive.”

Waxman says the authority understands the city can’t cut overtime with a 19% staff vacancy rate.

“You can’t forego coverage. You have to provide the services the city has to provide, but I think the budgeting has gotten better at reflecting conditions on the ground.”

The $8 million saved is a speck in a $6 billion city budget, but Finance Director Rob Dubow says any saving is important.

“The budget’s so tight in so many areas that any place we get some help allows us to keep our long-term fiscal health while making investments we need to make,” he said.

Dubow says the savings are due to changes in the way the DA’s office and police department schedule officers to testify.

“It took a fair amount of coordination and consistent work, but you can see it’s paid off,” Dubow said.

The city controller, meanwhile, found that the city is spending far less on workman’s comp for public safety agencies. Payments dropped by more than 80% last year for a savings of $25 million.