This study says public spending in Philadelphia is super efficient

A recent study claims Philadelphia is the third-best city in terms of efficient public spending. Cue collective head scratching.

Let’s take a very, very brief look at some recent public spending dilemmas in Philadelphia:

• Two years ago, Licenses and Inspections doled out $50,000 to replace the ampersand between the L and I with a plus sign.
• Last year, we all found out Philadelphia School District spends less per pupil than many of its metropolitan peers.
• This past year, we found out the Mayor’s Fund for Philadelphia spent upwards of $3 million in advertising to bring Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit to town (which we recently lost to Boston).

Those expenses aren’t exactly representative of a city with the third-best public spending rates. The study, churned out by personal finance company WalletHub, ranked cities in accordance with three metrics:

• Education ROI (Philadelphia is ranked no. 4).
• Law Enforcement ROI (Philadelphia is ranked no. 10).
• Parks and Recreation ROI (Philadelphia is ranked no. 7).

Not exactly meaty. According to the study, the researchers intended to include metrics for public transportation, infrastructure and health, but data for those metrics “were not available and therefore excluded” from the analysis.

“Although such limitations exist,” the study says, “efficient spending in the key areas accounted for in this report is a strong indicator for the level of efficiency in other expenditure categories.”

Needless to say, take this study with a grain of salt. Read the full report