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City Residents Express Distrust, Budget Priorities
  
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Civic Engagement Meeting Findings Show Public Favors Higher Taxes To Core Service Cuts
By Jenny DeHuff, The Bulletin
Philadelphia — During a live public access broadcast, Mayor Michael A. Nutter and members of City Council heard the findings of eight town hall meetings, focused on public engagement on the best approach to managing the city budget.
Harris Sokoloff, director of the University of Pennsylvania Project for Civic Engagement, offered grim news as a majority of the public expressed misgivings in many aspects of the budget discussions, including what is expected from taxpayers.
“Most residents at the meetings were desperate for keeping the city’s core services,” he said.
Joining Mr. Sokoloff was Chris Satullo, executive director of News and Civic Dialogue for WHYY. Together the men compiled a summary titled, “The City Budget: Tight Times, Tough Choices,” a report to the mayor on the findings of the community engagement meetings.
Methods of increasing city revenues were questions posed to participants, Mr. Sokoloff said, and after some convincing, the public began to grasp the severity of the budget status.
“I think people began to understand this is a tough tradeoff time,” he said. “We can’t declare a bunch of services off limits without agreeing to tax ourselves to raise money for those services.”
Since taking office, Mr. Nutter has spoken often about government transparency and, after announcing the possibility of library branch and fire company closings, he has again sought feedback from his constituents.
For Fiscal Year 2009, the city faces a $108 million budget shortfall, and Mr. Satullo and Mr. Sokoloff told the mayor a tax increase might be inevitable.
While raising taxes in cites wide-eyed horror to many in the low-income bracket, Mr. Sokoloff said the public did come to an agreement on the list of acceptable taxes to be increased: amusement and parking taxes, wage tax, sales and real estate taxes and finally, a trash pickup fee.
In past Philly Stat budget meetings, Deputy Secretary for Transportation Rina Cutler said there is a possibility the streets department could implement a “pay-as-you-throw” policy, at a rate of $5 a week, in some cases.
Mr. Sokoloff said taxpayers are reluctant to buy into paying more in property taxes until the long overdue problem of uncollected taxes was resolved.
Finance Director Rob Dubow indicated the repercussions a city wage tax increase would have on lawmakers in Harrisburg — who wrinkle a brow in the direction of Philadelphia anyway.
City Council President Anna Verna reminded the mayor increasing the wage tax could jeopardize some $80 million coming to the city from state gaming revenues.
The mayor agreed. “I’m not willing to go down that path,” he said. “State officials are very watchful of this.”
Essentials among taxpayers with regard to budget cuts were minimizing the impact on the most vulnerable. “No Way, No How” service cuts were those affecting homeless shelters, government health clinics and recreational parks.
“Many people were horrified at the notion of closing health centers,” said Mr. Satullo.
Other suggestions for savings in the public safety niche included preventing crime by keeping youth engaged in productive activities, keeping up police staff levels to ensure safer neighborhoods, and considering closing a prison that mainly houses misdemeanor offenders.
“Our jails have a lot of people in them who are non-violent offenders,” said Mr. Satullo.
Mr. Sokoloff said members of the public wanted to preserve civil service layoffs and root out inefficiencies and redundancies in city government. Among the reported complaints were Mr. Nutter’s personal staff increases of 20 percent since he took office, and the personal chauffeurs for City Council.
This led to revelations of major distrusts in the numbers put forth by the Nutter administration, the effectiveness of the workshop processes and whether or not public opinion would be valued when it comes time to vote on the budget.
“We take this very seriously,” Mr. Nutter said directly into the camera filming him. “The numbers are the numbers. We have ‘X’ amount of dollars and I don’t think there’s any dispute otherwise.
“A budget is more than numbers on a sheet of paper and it’s not a dry recitation of numbers and revenues,” he added. “This input is going to be taken very seriously and many of these concerns will be reflected in the upcoming budget.”
Jenny DeHuff can be reached at jdehuff@thebulletin.us
Harris Sokoloff, director of the University of Pennsylvania Project for Civic Engagement, offered grim news as a majority of the public expressed misgivings in many aspects of the budget discussions, including what is expected from taxpayers.
“Most residents at the meetings were desperate for keeping the city’s core services,” he said.
Joining Mr. Sokoloff was Chris Satullo, executive director of News and Civic Dialogue for WHYY. Together the men compiled a summary titled, “The City Budget: Tight Times, Tough Choices,” a report to the mayor on the findings of the community engagement meetings.
Methods of increasing city revenues were questions posed to participants, Mr. Sokoloff said, and after some convincing, the public began to grasp the severity of the budget status.
“I think people began to understand this is a tough tradeoff time,” he said. “We can’t declare a bunch of services off limits without agreeing to tax ourselves to raise money for those services.”
Since taking office, Mr. Nutter has spoken often about government transparency and, after announcing the possibility of library branch and fire company closings, he has again sought feedback from his constituents.
For Fiscal Year 2009, the city faces a $108 million budget shortfall, and Mr. Satullo and Mr. Sokoloff told the mayor a tax increase might be inevitable.
While raising taxes in cites wide-eyed horror to many in the low-income bracket, Mr. Sokoloff said the public did come to an agreement on the list of acceptable taxes to be increased: amusement and parking taxes, wage tax, sales and real estate taxes and finally, a trash pickup fee.
In past Philly Stat budget meetings, Deputy Secretary for Transportation Rina Cutler said there is a possibility the streets department could implement a “pay-as-you-throw” policy, at a rate of $5 a week, in some cases.
Mr. Sokoloff said taxpayers are reluctant to buy into paying more in property taxes until the long overdue problem of uncollected taxes was resolved.
Finance Director Rob Dubow indicated the repercussions a city wage tax increase would have on lawmakers in Harrisburg — who wrinkle a brow in the direction of Philadelphia anyway.
City Council President Anna Verna reminded the mayor increasing the wage tax could jeopardize some $80 million coming to the city from state gaming revenues.
The mayor agreed. “I’m not willing to go down that path,” he said. “State officials are very watchful of this.”
Essentials among taxpayers with regard to budget cuts were minimizing the impact on the most vulnerable. “No Way, No How” service cuts were those affecting homeless shelters, government health clinics and recreational parks.
“Many people were horrified at the notion of closing health centers,” said Mr. Satullo.
Other suggestions for savings in the public safety niche included preventing crime by keeping youth engaged in productive activities, keeping up police staff levels to ensure safer neighborhoods, and considering closing a prison that mainly houses misdemeanor offenders.
“Our jails have a lot of people in them who are non-violent offenders,” said Mr. Satullo.
Mr. Sokoloff said members of the public wanted to preserve civil service layoffs and root out inefficiencies and redundancies in city government. Among the reported complaints were Mr. Nutter’s personal staff increases of 20 percent since he took office, and the personal chauffeurs for City Council.
This led to revelations of major distrusts in the numbers put forth by the Nutter administration, the effectiveness of the workshop processes and whether or not public opinion would be valued when it comes time to vote on the budget.
“We take this very seriously,” Mr. Nutter said directly into the camera filming him. “The numbers are the numbers. We have ‘X’ amount of dollars and I don’t think there’s any dispute otherwise.
“A budget is more than numbers on a sheet of paper and it’s not a dry recitation of numbers and revenues,” he added. “This input is going to be taken very seriously and many of these concerns will be reflected in the upcoming budget.”
Jenny DeHuff can be reached at jdehuff@thebulletin.us
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John Law wrote on Mar 5, 2009 1:06 PM: