{"id":169551,"date":"2026-04-18T19:47:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T19:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/169551\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T19:47:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T19:47:06","slug":"elections-2026-philadelphia-ballot-questions-for-may-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/169551\/","title":{"rendered":"Elections 2026: Philadelphia ballot questions for May primary"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

All registered voters in Philadelphia can weigh in on two ballot questions for the May 19 primary election.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania has closed primaries<\/a>, meaning registered Democrats and Republicans can cast a ballot only for races within their party. Ballot questions, however, are open to all voters, regardless of party affiliation<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

This election cycle, Philadelphia has two questions on the ballot. Here\u2019s what you need to know.\n <\/p>\n

Ballot Question 1
\nQuestion text<\/p>\n

Shall the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to provide for the creation of the Philadelphia Retirement Savings Board to oversee a defined contribution retirement program for the benefit of eligible private-sector workers, and to authorize City Council to determine the composition, powers and duties of the board?\n<\/p>\n

Ballot statement<\/p>\n

The City\u2019s Home Rule Charter sets up the framework of City government. The Charter is the City\u2019s constitution.\n<\/p>\n

A \u201cyes\u201d vote means you approve the creation of the Philadelphia Retirement Savings Board as an independent board within the City\u2019s government. The Board would oversee creation and administration of a retirement program for certain eligible workers whose employers do not offer them a retirement plan. Contributions to the plan would only come from the participating workers. Details of the retirement program may be established by ordinance.\n<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the context?<\/p>\n

In 2016, Mayor Cherelle Parker, at the time a city council member, proposed a task force<\/a> to explore the possibility of launching a city-supervised retirement savings plan. A study had revealed that Philadelphians on average weren\u2019t saving enough for retirement.\n<\/p>\n

Out of that came the proposal for the Philly Saves program<\/a>. If the ballot question is approved, amending the city\u2019s Home Rule Charter to create the Philadelphia Retirement Savings Board, that board will implement and facilitate the Philly Saves program.\n<\/p>\n

Under Philly Saves, workers in the city whose employers do not offer a retirement savings plan will automatically be enrolled, with 3%-6% of their paycheck going into a city-sponsored individual retirement account, or IRA. Philadelphians will have the option to opt out or adjust their contribution levels.\n<\/p>\n

Philadelphia would become the first city in the U.S. <\/a>to offer its own retirement savings plan, joining 17 states, including New Jersey<\/a>, that have already implemented similar programs.\n<\/p>\n

According to an August 2025 study from the Pew Charitable Trusts<\/a>, 35% of older Philadelphians have incomes that either fall below or just above $14,330 per year, the Census Bureau\u2019s poverty threshold. The report found that older Philadelphians are struggling more financially compared to their counterparts across the nation and in other cities, with a median household income level of $39,412.\n<\/p>\n

Older households relied on wages for 35.6% of their income, with retirement funds \u2014 not Social Security \u2014 representing just 21.3%.\n<\/p>\n

The number of seniors in Philadelphia who are either keeping their jobs past age 65 or returning to the workforce is also on the rise<\/a>, research by the same organization found.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16019,25694,69,71,70,5638],"class_list":{"0":"post-169551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-ballot-question","9":"tag-elections-2026","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","12":"tag-philadelphia-news","13":"tag-primary-election"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}