I will admit to being stunned, and I’m sure that columnist Will Bunch must be grinding his teeth in anger, but the Editorial Board of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who previously endorsed former Controller Rebecca Rhynhart McDuff for the Democratic nomination for Mayor are calling “progressive” candidate Helen Gym Flaherty to account:

Helen Gym’s plans for Philly are long on ambition, short on specifics | Editorial

Questions about how to fund billions in new spending have apparently irked Gym, but voters deserve answers.

by The Editorial Board | Tuesday, April 25, 2023 | 5:00 AM EDT

If elected mayor, Helen Gym has an ambitious agenda for Philadelphia. In fact, she said she wants “to change the way people live in this city.”

Gym’s long list of proposals includes guaranteed jobs for people under 30 and spending $10 billion to modernize public school buildings. But as with much of Gym’s campaign, her grandiose ideas are long on rhetoric but short on details.

When she was asked about the cost of the guaranteed jobs program, she said: “I think there are significant dollars that are currently available, but we don’t have a commitment or a plan right now.”

So, Gym’s guaranteed jobs may not be guaranteed.

None of that will matter to the ‘progressives,’ of course. The Working Families Party, which is quite frankly socialist though they don’t use the word, and which supports Mrs Flaherty, upon hearing of far-left, police-hating Brandon Johnson winning the Mayoral race in Chicago, immediately posted the tweet shown on the right, knowing that Mrs Flaherty is just as supportive of the Philadelphia Police Department as Mr Johnson is of Chicago’s.

Her answer also lacked clarity when asked how the perennially underfunded Philadelphia School District — with its $4 billion annual budget — would pay for the $10 billion for building renovations.

She told Inquirer reporter Anna Orso the city could borrow to finance some of the capital costs and steer a higher percentage of property taxes to the School District, leaving less money for other city services. A campaign spokesperson told this board that “much of the funding is not expected to require borrowing.”

So, maybe Gym will borrow the money, or maybe not.

Gym’s spokesperson added the city’s final cost depends on additional state and federal funding. In other words, how to pay for her signature education program is still to be determined.

There’s much, much more at the original, and the Editorial Board are pretty good at calling out the fact that Mrs Flaherty has been just throwing proposals on the wall, to see what will stick, to grab just another few voters into her column, without any flaming idea how to pay for all of it.

Gym should be honest about her big spending agenda before voters go to the polls on May 16. Philadelphia does not have unlimited funds. Under Mayor Jim Kenney, the city’s budget increased 50% to $6 billion with little to show for the spending spree.

The city tried to tax and spend its way to prosperity in the 1970s and ‘80s and nearly went bankrupt. Despite 25 years of fiscal sanity before Kenney was elected, Philadelphia remains one of the most heavily taxed cities in the country. The city’s tax burden continues to contribute to its slow job growth, which, in turn, is linked to its high poverty rate.

Heaven forfend! Has a Republican sneaked into the Inky’s offices and tried to say things that actually make some sense?

Then again, even the #woke inhabiting the Inquirer’s offices have to realize that the money has to come from somewhere, and that despite a series of begging letters to subscribers, the newspaper still had to make some layoffs last January. Reality bites.

The Board continued for several more paragraphs, telling readers how Mrs Flaherty is, to put it more bluntly than they did, more a bomb-thrower than a builder.

Gym is an effective hell-raiser. But Philadelphia needs a mayor who is a troubleshooter, not a troublemaker. Leading and building consensus in a diverse city doesn’t work with a bullhorn. And rule one for any big spending plans is to show your work.

But that’s the problem: so many people are so disgusted with the city, and with law enforcement — to judge by the landslide election victories of George Soros-sponsored, police-hating District Attorney Larry Krasner — that a bomb thrower who makes socialist promises for which there is no reasonable way to pay stands a very good chance of winning the Democratic primary, which means, in the City of Brotherly Love, almost certainly victory in the November general election as well.

It’s a reasonable question to ask: would the Editorial Board endorse Republican David Oh in the general election if Mrs Flaherty wins the Democratic nomination?