Good morning and welcome to Broad + Liberty's Weekly Reads.

Stay up to date on all of this and more when yousubscribe to our daily email list ([link removed]) and get the best of Broad + Liberty delivered straight to your inbox.


** 1. Budget fix or shell game? Delaware County’s $7.6M mystery ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------


By Todd Shepherd

Delaware County says it has no documents — not a single email, memo, spreadsheet, text, or voicemail — that could shed light on how $7.6 million dollars magically showed up in the county’s second draft of the 2025 budget, thereby giving the county more breathing room on the massive tax increase it was proposing for the upcoming year.

That $7.6 million infusion into a single spending line is important because it represents most of the difference between the county’s first budget draft proposing a 28 percent tax increase, and the subsequent draft that lowered the proposed tax increase to 23 percent. In other words, the tax decrease between the two versions couldn’t have happened without the additional $7.6 million.

But where that money came from has never been described or explained.

Why It Matters. If the county borrowed from Peter to pay Paul, that money would have to be replaced at some point, creating the possibility that the county has more tax hikes in its future unless it finds a way to create $7.6 million in savings or budget cuts.

In late November, days before the county would hold its first open meetings about the budget, Broad + Liberty went to county offices to get copies of the first draft. A line of the budget marked “transfers” only showed $510,000 being counted as revenue for 2025.

Continue Reading ([link removed])


** 2. Port Richmond elegy ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------

By Thom Nickels

There’s not a single vacant space in my Riverwards Fishtown-Port Richmond neighborhood that hasn’t been rezoned for rehab by developers.

One night as I was making my way to a friend’s house in the neighborhood, I passed the spot where one of my favorite little houses once stood. This tiny house used to sit next to a large overgrown wooded area. I’ve always called this house, “The Little House That Could.”

It wasn’t a beautiful house by any means, but the way it was situated next to a small patch of urban wildlife near the Belgrade Street overpass has always given it a unique “house in the mountains” look. For years I’d see the owners of this house working outside on their trucks and cars. At Christmastime there was always a simple string of lights placed on the home’s humble door. The truly odd thing about the property was that the overgrown yard wasn’t fenced in. For years anyone could walk in and out of the wooded area which had the look and feel of a little house in the Poconos.

Then, developers invaded the area. They purchased the small wooded area next to the little house and soon built two unsightly, out-of-scale, four-story, cookie-cutter houses with large picture windows and exterior steel prefabricated stairs with inboard rails.

Why It Matters. My little street was changing faster than the climate.

In conjunction with all this, the oldest indigenous family on the block moved away, meaning that all the original people that were on the block nineteen years ago when I moved here from Center City were now lost to the ages. Where did the time go?

It’s easy to wax nostalgic, especially since I numbered myself as one of the first “gentrifiers” from Center City. I thought about the old neighborhood that I knew then, especially the look of the broken walls of the old paint factory at Thompson and Huntingdon.

Everywhere I walk in my neighborhood now I see 400K townhouses that look more and more like housing projects in China.

Continue Reading ([link removed])


** 3. Lightning Round
------------------------------------------------------------
* From The Editors: Delco takes important step of putting campaign finance filings online ([link removed])
* Award for Philly schools superintendent sparks controversy following antisemitism failures ([link removed])
* Kyle Sammin: Philadelphia benefits when both parties pay attention to it ([link removed])
* State senator’s unannounced visit sparks debate over morale and management at Delco’s George W. Hill Prison ([link removed])
* Dr. Debra Minzola: The last face you see before surgery, the first when you awake ([link removed])


** 4. Podcast
------------------------------------------------------------
Join the staff of Broad + Liberty as they dive into PA's new political landscape, media disruption, and what’s next for PA's future. You won't want to miss this insightful discussion.

[link removed]


** 5. What we're reading
------------------------------------------------------------

The Biden era ended last week with one final burst of corruption. As Jonathan Turley writes in a piece for The Hill, ([link removed]) “Joe Biden snatched infamy from the jaws of obscurity” by granting half of his family sweeping, blanket pardons for any offenses they may have committed. “No one is above the law,” Biden said when the Supreme Court ruled that then-ex-President Donald Trump enjoyed some immunity from prosecution. “Unless your name is Biden,” he might have added. But as Broad + Liberty’s own Kyle Sammin wrote for the Washington Examiner this week ([link removed]) , Biden’s excessive abuses of the pardoning power might have a silver lining in finally getting Congress to pass a constitutional amendment redistricting it.

Broad + Liberty is funded exclusively by readers like you.

Your generous support ensures that Broad + Liberty can bring you stories and opinions that Pennsylvania’s mainstream media would rather leave unheard. Please consider making a contribution today. If you would like your gift to be used to help us cover a specific story or subject, please let us know in the contribution form or at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

As always, gifts made to Broad + Liberty are 100% tax deductible!

Thank you, dear reader, for your steadfast support of our independent, broad-minded brand of local journalism. We could not do this without you.

With gratitude,

— The Editors at Broad + Liberty
Support Broad + Liberty ([link removed])
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]

============================================================
Copyright © 2025 Broad + Liberty, All rights reserved.
You're getting Broad + Liberty updates due to your interest in our site – and local stories for free thinkers in the Philly region and beyond.

Our mailing address is:
Broad + Liberty
323 West Front Street
Suite 200
Media, PA 19063
USA
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.

Broad and Liberty, Inc. is a Pennsylvania Domestic Nonprofit Corporation classifed as a public charity under Internal Revenue Code Section 501 (c) (3).
Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
[link removed]