Posted on Sat, Nov. 8, 2008

Mummers feel the budget pinch

By Edward Colimore

Inquirer Staff Writer

Frank Passio was chatting up a new Mummers campaign yesterday that will promote the one-of-a-kind New Year's Day parade with banners hung across Center City.

But as he praised the project at the Moorestown company that produced the colorful banners, his cell phone wouldn't stay quiet.

There were voice and text messages from the president of one string band, the drill master of another, and a marketing specialist from a third - each person stunned by reports of the city's announcement on Wednesday that it would eliminate its $355,000 contribution to the Mummers.

All but $53,000 was to have gone to the parade. The rest was designated for the Mummers Museum at 1100 S. Second St.

Mayor Nutter's budget cuts, intended to address a city economic crisis of "incredible proportions," also call on the sponsors of public events to pick up the overtime for police and Streets Department workers - hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the event.

"This will break some string bands," said Passio, a member of the Joseph A. Ferko String Band and founder of Philadelphia Mummers Parade Marketing Group L.L.C., a self-funded organization that promotes the Mummers tradition.

"We used to have 28 [bands]. Now we have 17, and we could go down to 12 in 2010," he predicted.

The city cuts will mean the loss of about $7,500 to each string band and $10,000 to the competition's first-prize winner, Passio said. Each band will continue to receive about $7,500 from MYPHL17, the station broadcasting the parade, he said.

The loss of city money presents challenges for units such as Ferko, which Passio said spends $100,000 on costumes and other needs for its New Year's performance.

"The parade will be significantly jeopardized," said Passio, a third-generation Mummer who owns 2nd Street Annie's, a restaurant and bar at Front Street and Fairmount Avenue.

"We need more money, not less," he said. "We need to save the parade."

News of the city's plans spread quickly through Mummers ranks yesterday, including the Fralinger String Band headquarters at Third and Mifflin Streets.

"We're concerned by the cuts, but not shocked," said Steve Coper, chairman of the Fralinger board of trustees.

The band has won the parade competition for six straight years. City funds were awarded to the Mummers groups on a graduated scale.

"The timing is a problem because we're well under way with our costumes, props and themes," said Coper, who is involved in the group's budgeting.

The band will have to change its "approach for development in 2010 and find different sources of revenue in these hard economic times," said Coper, a Mummer for 38 years. "We're going to have to change our spending."

Absorbing the cost of city services seemed only to add insult to injury. Instead of being paid, the Mummers can now expect a bill.

Nutter's cabinet officials said the city would enforce a rule often overlooked in the past. The cost of the Mummers Parade traditionally has been forgiven, they said.

Last week's Phillies World Series victory parade cost $300,000 in police overtime, according to the city. Much of that was offset by private contributions.

"It's tough news, but we can't get emotional," Coper said. "We just have to make plans to address it. If we stop marching, we'll be forgotten."

The string bands can make money through paid performances during the year, he said, but Mummers will also have to seek corporate sponsorships.

Groups such as the Golden Crown Fancy Brigade seemed resigned, even understanding, about the bad news.

"Any time they take any funding away, whether it's for this longstanding tradition or police and firemen, it's difficult," said Bob Runowski, vice president of the Crown Fancy Brigade, which came in fourth this year.

"But given the economy and circumstances, we have to deal with it and move on," he said.

The 47 members of the brigade "struggle all year to raise funds to put on the performances," he said. "Each [costume] cost $850 to $1,000. The captain's suit can be $2,500 to $6,000 . . .

"You have to come up with new and creative ways to raise money and sustain yourself."

The Mummers Museum also faces cuts, according to Palma Lucas, its executive director. The museum's annual expenses are $300,000, she said.

The subsidy "was a great help to us, especially in meeting our $48,000 [insurance] liability bill," Lucas said. "Our electric bills during the winter run $4,000 a month."

Lucas said the museum had already eliminated Sunday hours and operates with a skeleton staff of two paid full-time workers and three part-timers. It fills in with volunteers.

The city may save $355,000 on the parade and museum, Lucas said, but it could lose out-of-town Mummers fans who generate airport, hotel and drink taxes.

"The Mummers are a way of life for some people," she said. "We have families with three, four generations in the parade that are going to be disappointed."

A bright spot for the Mummers will be the promotional banners, to be formally unveiled at the museum on Tuesday and hung on lightposts on the Center City parade route from Dec. 1 to Jan. 5.

Passio said he "didn't know a [budget] bomb would hit" when he, Berlin Borough graphic artist Gina Caimi and others first discussed the project in the spring.

Caimi, also a member of Philadelphia Mummers Parade Marketing Group, said she wanted to create an image to convey the "celebratory spirit of the Mummers."

Her banner - in vibrant purple, red, white, yellow and green - shows a strutting Mummer with a Philadelphia skyscraper in the background. It's emblazoned with the words "Philadelphia Mummers Parade. Celebrate the Tradition."

About 34 banners were produced by Quaker Chroma Imaging in Moorestown, and scores more may be added if Passio's organization can find business sponsors. Each sponsor's name will be added to a corner of a banner.

"The parade is bleeding and nobody is putting a Band-Aid on it," Passio said. "It's a Philadelphia icon that's disappearing."