Finance Department

The Office of the Director of Finance, usually called the Finance Department, is the City of Philadelphia's central financial office. It writes the Mayor's operating budget and Five Year Plan, keeps the City's books, runs citywide payroll and risk management, and supervises the agencies that collect and hold public money. Because Philadelphia is both a city and a county, the Finance Director's portfolio covers functions that elsewhere are split between municipal and county governments. The post is filled by the Mayor under the Home Rule Charter. As of March 2026 the Director was Rob Dubow, who testified to City Council with First Deputy Finance Director Cat Lamb and Deputy Finance Director Elizabeth Hanley.^[1]

1 What Finance does

Finance describes its mission as keeping the City fiscally stable while meeting the Mayor's policy goals. In practice it oversees financial, accounting and budgetary functions, sets fiscal policy guidelines, records and reports all City financial activity, administers payroll and risk management, issues financial reports and monitors expenditures and grants.^[1] Its largest internal units include:

• The Budget Office, which develops the operating and capital budgets and the rolling Five Year Plan and also houses the City's central Grants Office. The Budget Director appointed in November 2024 is Sabrina Maynard, a longtime Finance official.^[2]
• Accounting, which maintains the central accounting system and produces the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report; the department aims for its 46th consecutive Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association.^[1]
• Central Payroll, which processes weekly payroll for nearly 31,000 active City employees, and the OnePhilly office, which manages the enterprise system for human resources, payroll, pensions and fringe benefits.^[1]
• The Office of Risk Management, which handles insurance, workers' compensation and liability exposure. Beginning in FY27 it also manages a new Vacatur Fund to give early financial and social support to people whose convictions have been vacated.^[1]
• The Administrative Services Center, which provides fiscal and administrative support to several offices, including Procurement, the Treasurer and the Office of Human Resources.

2 Agencies in the Finance cluster

Four agencies report to the Finance Director: the Department of Revenue, the City Treasurer's Office, the Office of Property Assessment and the Board of Pensions and Retirement.^[1] Together they set property values, bill and collect taxes, manage cash, debt and investments, and pay retirement benefits. The Finance Director also sits as an ex officio, non-voting member of the board of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, the state-created body that reviews the City's Five Year Plan.^[3]

3 Budget, reserves and credit ratings

The adopted Fiscal Year 2027 General Fund (July 2026 to June 2027) projects revenues of about $6.58 billion and expenditures of about $7.13 billion, with an estimated year-end fund balance of $364.6 million, or 5.5 percent of revenues. The Plan also builds a Budget Stabilization Reserve projected at $290 million in FY27 and re-establishes a $91 million Federal Funding Reserve to cushion possible federal cuts.^[4] The FY27-31 Five Year Plan was approved by the PICA board in July 2026.^[5] See How to Read the City Budget for a guide to the documents.

Finance and the Treasurer's Office also manage the City's credit. According to the Finance Director's testimony, Fitch upgraded the City from A to A+ in June 2024 and S&P Global did the same in November 2024, citing pension funding and reserve building; in November 2025 Moody's moved its outlook from stable to positive.^[1] Higher ratings lower the interest the City pays on borrowing for infrastructure.

4 Systems and oversight projects

With the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer and the Office of Innovation and Technology, Finance is leading Project OPAL (Optimizing Procurement and Accounting Logistics), a replacement of the City's accounting, contracting and procurement systems, with a targeted go-live of July 2027.^[1] Finance has also said it will engage an independent outside consultant to evaluate the accuracy, equity and methodology of the Tax Year 2027 property revaluation by the Office of Property Assessment.^[1] That review follows questions raised by some Council members about the new assessments, reported in July 2026.^[6] Finance also supports the Procurement Department and Treasurer in expanding a purchasing-card pilot.

5 Staffing and size

For FY27 Finance requested 147 budgeted General Fund positions, including two for the new Vacatur Fund. The department reported an average full-time salary of $95,551 and 132 positions filled as of November 2025. Its proposed FY27 General Fund budget for the office itself was about $23.7 million.^[1] Much larger sums flow through Finance's appropriation lines, including fringe benefits, indemnities, refunds, the contribution to the School District and the Budget Stabilization Reserve, which the budget ordinance appropriates "to the Director of Finance."^[7]

6 How residents encounter Finance

Most residents deal with Finance indirectly: a tax bill from Revenue, a property value from OPA, a pension check from the Board of Pensions. Contract bidders encounter its payment and risk-management rules (see Understanding City Contracts and Bids). Requests for public financial documents, such as Budget in Brief editions and the annual financial report, are published on phila.gov; see also How to Request Public Records. The independent City Controller, an elected official, audits Finance and the rest of City government.

See also: Philadelphia City Budget Process, Philadelphia Taxes, PICA, Revenue Department, City Treasurer.

References

1. Office of the Director of Finance, "Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Testimony," presented to City Council, March 25, 2026 (phlcouncil.com).
2. City of Philadelphia, "Mayor Parker announces newly appointed leadership at the City's Office of Human Resources and the Budget Office," November 25, 2024 (phila.gov).
3. Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, "Board Members" (picapa.org).
4. City of Philadelphia, The Mayor's Operating Budget in Brief for Fiscal Year 2027, as adopted by the Council, June 2026 (phila.gov).
5. City of Philadelphia, "Mayor Parker's Fiscal Year 2027-2031 Five Year Financial and Strategic Plan unanimously approved by PICA board," July 28, 2026 (phila.gov).
6. Philadelphia Inquirer, reporting on the Tax Year 2027 property reassessment and Council questions, July 15, 2026 (inquirer.com).
7. City of Philadelphia, Fiscal Year 2027 Appropriation Ordinance, in the Operating Budget in Brief, Section V.