Chester will need $250M over next 10 years to overcome bankruptcy, city says

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After four years of bankruptcy, the city of Chester finally has a number on what it’s going to take to get it financially back on track.

A comprehensive analysis identified $45.7 million in upfront needs, plus a growing annual deficit, totalling approximately $250 million over the next 10 years.

Chester Receiver Vijay Kapoor, who is tasked with helping the city get its finances right, said that between 2014 and 2020, the city did not make contributions to its pension plan.

“As a result of that, a lot of liabilities and penalties and interest on those unpaid payments continued to grow, and it finally came to a head, which is why the city was placed in receivership,” he said.

“It’s certainly challenging, but I think it’s doable,” he said of the deficit. “The next steps are going to be for me to sit down with the stakeholders and the creditors to figure out a way of closing these deficits.”

Kapoor said now that the city has a concrete number to work with, officials can turn their attention to climbing out of the hole. They will be looking at about every avenue to get back on track, except, he said, for privatizing the city’s water assets.

There is currently not a timeline on how long it will take to get the city of Chester out of bankruptcy.