There is good news for both sides of the soda tax debate and for the rest of our citizens: there is enough money in the current proposed budget to fund the Administration’s new programs without raising taxes. That’s because Philadelphia’s budgeting process has historically included large sums of money “parked” in departments for future use without identifying the purposes for which they will be used. Regardless of whether people approve of how the money is ultimately spent, the problem is that they are not able to voice their opinion on how these funds should be spent, if they should be spent at all.

Here’s how it’s done. Every year, Council approves requests to fund City departments. The Administration budgets far more money for certain departments than it will actually allow them to spend. Later, the Administration will request that the extra money be transferred and spent for some other purpose. The cycle repeats itself and each year funds are over-allocated, excess funds are reallocated, and then they are spent for reasons not identified in the budget.

That’s why I’m introducing a budget amendment to stop this cycle and use the excess money to fund new programs without raising taxes. As of today, my staff has uncovered $180 million in likely disguised over-allocations in the proposed 2017 budget. $103 million of these tax dollars can be reallocated to fund new programs such as universal pre-K and parks and recreation infrastructure repairs.  Otherwise, more money will be collected from citizens than is needed and used later on for some other unstated reason.

My staff has calculated the average difference between budgeted and actual amounts of spending in each department over the past seven years.  We found that one office was allocated an average of 9 percent more than it spent over the past seven years and had transferred a total of $55 million over that time. Another office was allocated 72 percent more than it spent for materials, supplies, and equipment in 2014 and 32 percent more than it spent in 2015. A commission was allocated $10 million or more than it spent every year over the past 7 years. Finally, one line item in the budget was allocated a total of $66 million between 2014 and 2015, and none of those funds were spent for that purpose. By simply applying the seven-year percentage differential in spending to departments’ requests this year, we can cut $180 million from the proposed $4.1 billion budget without reducing one penny of actual services and support.

But in order to be cautious, I reduced the $180 million in likely disguised over allocations to approximately $103 million by evaluating budget items according to each department’s pattern of spending. Some departments have demonstrated improved ability to manage their funding, and so I did not propose reducing their requested funding. On the other hand, I have proposed reducing budgeted allocations for departments that have not shown improvement in managing their funding, adjusting line items towards a more realistic figure of what they will actually use.

Why is $103 million out of $4.1 billion in the overall budget important to you? Because extra programs (e.g., $26 million for universal pre-K and $4.2 million for community schools) require extra money, and unless that money comes out of the existing budget, additional revenue is needed through borrowing, taxes, and fees. That means additional and unnecessary burdens on our citizens. The over-allocated $103 million we’ve identified far surpasses the revenue projections for the first year of the Administration’s soda tax ($48 million) and Council’s projections of the first-year cost of pre-K, community schools, and rebuilding infrastructure ($60 million). In fact, if we saved this much money each year by budgeting and spending more efficiently, we would raise $515 million in the same amount of time that the Administration would raise $432 for pre-K and community infrastructure through the soda tax.

We need good programs, and we should all do our best to support the new Administration whenever possible.  But we also need jobs, opportunities, new investment, and better fiscal accountability from our government to our citizens. Otherwise, we’ll end up with none of the above, but the citizens will pay the tab.

If you want our city to move forward with universal pre-K ($26 million), community schools ($4.2 million), improvements in parks and recreation facilities, and rebuilt community infrastructure ($12.5 million), your wish can come true. Don’t believe that you need to pay extra for it. Let’s get the City’s budgeting in order before we resort to increasing taxes.

David Oh is a Philadelphia City Councilman At-Large.