For the last almost two years, I've waited for the Nutter Administration to live up to the "hope" that the citizens had when we elected him Mayor. However, as we round out nearly 18 months, there is much left to be desired.

I am not as critical of the Mayor as I am of his support staff. Perhaps Buzz Bissinger stated it best a few Sundays ago when he wrote " I wanted him to succeed. That's why I voted for him. But after 17 months in office, I am edging to a reluctant conclusion: He still doesn't have a clue. You can point to victories, the most important of which is that people still like him and hope for his success: 90 percent of politics, after all, is perception. But his handling of various crises shows impulsive media-driven judgment that inevitably has no prayer, as well as a shocking failure to have his ducks in order, with the result of getting blindsided and embarrassed." http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20090614_THE_THROWAWAY.html

Like Buzz, I am not ignorant to the fact that this Adminstration has been confronted with a global economic challenge. However, the business of government still must go on and for some reason it seems that all of the gears don't click.

Its time for some heads to roll. I watched CityStat and budget testimony and it seems like Dr. Barnett is running her own little fiefdom of government. She seems terribly obsessed with 3-1-1 and seems to ignore the rest of the departments. During one budget hearing, there was confusion about whether Dr. Barnett supervised the Police Department. According the Charter she does. One of the 48 Laws of Power states that if you "strike the Shepard the sheep will scatter." M

Nutter need to shake up this government...show that he is in charge...show that he cares not about his public opinion poll numbers and what the Op-Eds boards say but that he cares about running an efficient government.

1) Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) has launched a blog called Childwatch, where they wil "report on breaking news and stimulate discussion about how local and state policies affect children," and cover "child health, child care, education, family economic security and child welfare." Check out their post giving a side by side comparison of the Governor's budget versus the insanity that is the PA GOP's Senate Bill 850.

2) From yesterday's Daily News, we see that AJ Thomson is up to no good:

FISHTOWN native A.J. Thomson hunkered down in deep left field and scooped up a fistful of the small, sharp stones that cover the unforgiving playing surface of Shissler Recreation Center's baseball diamond, on Blair Street near Berks.

"This is what my 4-year-old daughter, Julia, plays T-ball on," he said.

"This is the last place in the city of Philadelphia where kids have to play on cinders. We've been trying for years to get the city to turn this into a grass-and-dirt field. We're still trying."

3) At SEPTA Watch, Mike Froelich gives a good example of why SEPTA needs to make sure that the schedule and locatin information of their vehicles must be free and public.

4) The Notebook's Erika Owens talks about the effort to get stimulus funding for broadband in Philadelphia, which is being led by the Media Mobilizing Project's Digital Justice Coalition.

The access is to broadband Internet and the speaker is Vice President Biden, who unveiled the rules for $7.2B in stimulus funds for broadband in Erie County, PA. The announcement was made in a rural part of the county, but the county is also home to the fourth-largest city in the state (and to my family - hello!).

Video of Biden shows him speaking about broadband access in the context of jobs and basic utilities like electricity, for people across the state.

Of the total, $2.5B of the funds are slotted for rural development, but that leaves the balance, $4.7B, available to "underserved" areas, including cities like Philly. Last week a variety of stakeholders met to discuss Philly's priorities in applying for those stimulus funds. The Notebook joined several organizing groups, other nonprofits, businesses, and numerous city workers and officials to outline our thoughts about the possibilities for this funding.

The Philadelphia Digital Justice Coalition drafted a set of core principles that helped direct our discussion of the funding. The four principles focus on connecting disenfranchised groups, building access in the home, working from a broad definition of digital inclusion, and ensuring access in the places where people already are.

5) Also from the Notebook, Dale Mezzacappa details the tensions between Arlene Ackerman and public school teachers, after she demanded that they each sign contracts for the first time in 20 years.

Lost in the shuffle of a couple big decisions of the Supreme Court this week was a Antonin Scalia(!) authored opinion that will give Attorneys General an enourmous amount of power to go after absuvie banks. The NYTimes Editorial lays out how the case came about:

As the current mortgage crisis was building, banks engaged in a wide array of bad practices. They lent to borrowers who could not afford to pay off the loans. They misrepresented loan terms, and they employed deceptive “teaser” rates to mislead their customers.

State attorneys general opened investigations and filed lawsuits. In 2005, then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer of New York asked several national banks about lending practices to determine whether blacks and Hispanics had been charged higher interest rates than whites — and whether the banks had violated fair lending laws.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, part of the Treasury Department, sued to block Mr. Spitzer. It claimed that a regulation it issued under the National Bank Act barred the states from enforcing state fair-lending laws. Two lower courts agreed.

Basically, Eliot Spitzer saw Bush and Co weren't acting to curb abusive lending. And so, when he tried to do it himself, Bush's regulators sued to stop him. After Spitzer lost, that was pretty much the end of states being able to force national banks to follow their own fair lending laws. Luckily, that decision didn't matter, because we live in a world of perfect markets, with the less regulation the better. So, as a result of that decision, the US was set on a course of happiness, candy canes, and endless prosperity...

But then a crazy thing happened this week. The Supreme Court, with Scalia as the deciding vote, decided Spitzer was right. All of a sudden, Attorneys General all across the Country were back in the business of protecting the residents of their state from national banks.

Which brings to our Attorney General, Tom Corbett. Thus far, at a time of an incredible economic calamities, Corbett has shown little interest in actually protecting consumers in PA, no matter who is causing their suffering. But with this decision, he just lost one more excuse why he cannot be more active.

Corbett wants to be Governor. I hope that he knows that a smart Democrat in 2012 will point to his time as AG, during this once in a generation downfall, and ask him why he didn't stand with ordinary Pennsylvanians.

Every year I look at the Census population estimates, and every year, I am somewhat surprised that Philly continues to lose population. This year is no different. As New York, and Chicago grow, Philly (along with Baltimore, Pittsburgh and others) keeps shrinking.

However, while it sucks to keep losing people, the trends really are starting to look pretty good:

The graph is the percent population growth for the 15 biggest cities. Philly is... at the bottom in blue. Look, for example at the first point in the graph, which is population growth from 2000 to 2001. Philly is well below everyone, except Detroit. But, if this trend keeps going, we appear to be on the verge of actually gaining population for the first time in quite a while. To otherwise see what I mean, look at the graph with the axes blacked out:

That is probably not the most statistically sound way of looking at things. But the point remains that relatively speaking, we a)started off the decade in just about the worst position of the cities shown, and b) we are consistently improving. As Ray has pointed out, population growth is not the end all of economic success for Philadelphians. But, it sure would be nice to stop hearing us referred to as a shrinking city, wouldn't it?

As an aside, for all of the Joey Vento's of the world out there, it is worth noting that without the dramatic influx of immigrants- most recently Mexican immigrants- we would still be shrinking quite a bit, as no one would be left to take ol Joey's place, after he took his Hummer to South Jersey.

The PA State Ethics Act, like the Philly one, has a confidentiality clause that makes it a violation of the Act to publicize when you make an ethics complaint. So, if I file an Ethics Act violation against Marc Stier and Sam Durso for boring us all to tears (wait, that isn't covered?), and then I tell all my friends on the twitters and youtube, I have violated the Ethics Act. In Philly, the confidentiality clause has ensnared many people, including the Director of the Board of Ethics.

And yesterday, after the Board fined an activist for violating the confidentiality clause, a Federal Judge granted an injunction against the enforcement of the Act's confidentiality provisions.

District Judge Christopher C. Conner granted the injunction to Middle Paxton Township activist Gene Stilp, who was charged with violating the act after he announced he filed a complaint against former House Majority Leader William DeWeese based upon a newspaper article that accused DeWeese of spending $290,000 in tax money on political polls.

Within a day, the State Ethics Commission ruled there was not enough evidence in Stilp's complaint to conduct an investigation and instead charged Stilp with violating the act by publicizing the filing of his complaint. On Oct. 16, Stilp entered into an agreement with the commission in which he admitted violating the act and agreed to pay a $500 fine. Stilp then filed suit in federal court to enjoin the commission from enforcing that provision of the act, saying it was a violation of his right to free speech.

The Federal Judge's ruling doesn't have any power over our own Act. But, by basically the same logic, I think it is likely that we will see a challenge to the Philly Act if it isn't modified. And if this is any indicator, the challenge will succeed.

crossposted at Philly Labor blog.

Janice Churchill sat at the front of the bus by 7.30 Thursday morning, wearing her purple shirt representing that she’s a proud member of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. She was joining 2,000 other union members, health care workers and citizens from across the state to fight for quality, affordable healthcare for everyone. She was ready with snacks, comfortable shoes -- and stories of how lacking affordable health care affects her and the people she supports every day.

It had to happen eventually, but, YPP is now on Twitter. Apparently, it is what all the kids are using these days.

Follow us: @yppdotcom.

The Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board released a study today that, somewhat unsurprisingly, has some pretty depressing findings. For example, from the report's release, we see that:

The report notes that Greater Philadelphia is able to lure good, high-paying employers to the area, but faces a growing gap between the essential needs of businesses and the skills of the workforce. The problem is especially acute in Philadelphia, where 52.2 percent of the population falls below the literacy standard required by businesses – meaning more than half of all adults struggle to follow written instructions or complete a form, such as a job application. That compares with 37.9 percent throughout Pennsylvania.

Half of Philadelphia cannot do something like adequately fill out a job application... That is a surreal number.

We go through these debates about taxes, and how much they matter. The point isn't that taxes make some sort of difference. Sure they do. But, there is little question that there are a whole host of other factors that are just as, or more, important, including things that lower city revenues make impossible to fulfill. For example, as this report makes clear, investing in an educated workforce is vitally important to real, sustainable, and widespread economic growth. But to make that investment, we have to collect money to pay for it, one way or another.

And, it is a smart thing to do. Because besides the basic morality of helping adults join the workforce, there is a clear payoff for that sort of investment:

An $84 million investment ($12 million annually for the next seven years) in adult literacy programs would produce $370 million in taxes and savings. How?

Investing in adult workforce literacy produces increased dollars for our community in two ways:

1) Increased tax revenue: The more people who work in Philadelphia, the more the City collects in wage taxes. And, statistics show that the higher education one has, the greater their likelihood of gaining employment and the higher their salary.

The result: a $12 million a year investment in literacy programs with proven results will impact roughly 3,117 additional people each year – producing $423,818 in tax revenue for each group of students each year for the City.

Over 7 years, this will amount to $11,866,904 in additional tax revenue.

2) Decrease in social service spending: High school drop-outs cost our community money, as it has to pay for services such as cash assistance, food stamps, the probability of using unemployment insurance, the probability of incarceration and court costs, among others…

• The Center for Labor Market Studies estimates the annual cost per high school drop-out per year in Philadelphia is $6,799.
• The investment in literacy programs often helps people who were once dependent on government services, and significantly increases their probability of achieving employment and wage gains.
• The result is our community saves an estimated $21,130,143 a year for each group of students who enroll in adult workforce literacy classes.
• 3,117 (amount of workers no longer needing benefits) * $6,799 (average cost our community pays in benefits)
• Total benefits: $370 million = (total increase in wage taxes over 7 years) + (total eduction in costs over 7 years) – (investment of $84 million).

12 million dollars a year equals 370 million dollars in savings down the line. That is a pretty big number. Of course, some of the above savings wouldn't be realized by Philly's budget itself- it would come in the form of Federal or State programs. But this is the type of program (along with many other things, such as helping people complete college that they have already started) that we have to spend money on if we want Philadelphia to be a vibrant place for all of its residents.

From Twitter user @Kalahn, we see the poster that seems to be everywhere in Philadelphia these days:

As Chris Bowers noted, while some of labor may have fallen in line with Specter, there is a real understanding by many that Specter has sold them out, and if he wants their support, he needs to start singing another song on the Employee Free Choice Act.

A lot has happened in the past week in regards to the PA Senate race:

First, a new Keystone Poll shows Arlen Specter is not all that popular:

The strong backing of Democratic Party leaders has done little to change slumping public support for the party's newest convert, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. Only 28 percent of all those surveyed say that he deserves re-election, according to the latest Keystone Poll, and double that number say it's time for a change.

....

Back in March, before the switch, roughly half the voters in each party said that Specter was doing an "excellent" or "good" job in the Senate.

Those numbers have plunged in the latest survey. Whereas 57 percent of Democrats gave him good or excellent ratings in March, only 46 percent rate him as highly now. Among Republicans, 49 percent rated his job performance as good or excellent in March, and only 18 percent gave him those ratings last week.

The support that is he somewhat holding onto is that of Democrats. If there is a real primary, or if Arlen doesn't come out strong for the Obama agenda, those numbers will sink, too. Further, in a match up against Sestak (with a very big MoE), the poll has it at 33-13. For an ultra incumbent like Arlen, being that much below 50 percent is very, very dangerous, and adds to worrisome trend lines in polls of the race:

And that is without Sestak doing any campaigning... Sestak is edging ever closer to a run. Word is that he will not announce for a month or two, but, he has made it pretty clear that he is in.

While that Keystone poll was in the field, Arlen was supposed to speak at the convention of the United Steelworkers. They dis-invited him. (Read this whole post, because it is pretttty funny.) If labor leaves him, he is really screwed.

Given all of that, and in an attempt to head left, he recently said that he is for a public health care option, after scoffing at it right after he switched parties. No one said Arlen wasn't good at making you a little dizzy.

On the Republican side, ultra-right Pat Toomey has effectively been cleared for the general election, as local Congressman Jim Gerlach has said he will not run.

Announcing:

Grand Opening of the No Slots Spot
street front office
718 Market Street
Home of the No Casino in the Heart of Our City Coalition and Casino Free Philadelphia

As the casino issue heats up in Philadelphia , it only seemed fitting that the struggle locate itself where it seems most appropriate - across the street from the greedy and inept Foxwoods/PREIT project. Asian Americans United and Casino Free Philadelphia have joined up to open the street level office, which will serve as the home of the No Casino in the Heart of Our City Coalition and Casino Free.

Nine months after a "done deal" on Market East was announced, there's little to show but scaffolding. Meanwhile, yesterday, Common Cause PA announced that more than $18 million has flowed from the gambling industry and its legal entities into the pockets of local politicians. It's a serious indictment of a state that, according to Common Cause, is one of the worst offenders in the country because of the lack of campaign donation limits and the failure of politicians to fully disclose their gambling contributions.

So in recognition of that and in celebration of the No Slots Spot, Asian Americans United and the No Casino in the Heart of Our City Coalition hosts the Anti-Casino Circus, because "when it comes to bringing slots to Philly, it's not a democratic process, it's a circus." (Props to AAU artist Kathy Shimizu for the artwork and the AAU team for tomorrow's acts.) The event is kid-friendly: skits galore, acrobats, jugglers, cotton candy too! And you'll support the effort to stop slots in Philly. For more information, contact Asian Americans United: 215-925-1538.

And the beat goes on...

SEPTA has postponed for a third time its deadline for a "smart-card" fare system.

The latest deadline is Aug. 18, five months later than the original March 17 requirement for manufacturers to submit proposals for an electronic system to replace tokens and paper tickets for its buses, subways, trolleys, and trains.

With a smart card, passengers would be able to wave a card at a sensor on a turnstile or fare box and be on their way.

SEPTA says it wants a system that will allow passengers to use credit cards, prepaid SEPTA cards, and even cell phones to pay for their trips.

And the beat goes on...

What is another few months among friends?! SEPTA should delay implementing a smart card system until the smart card system tells you how far away the train is, gives you movies reviews, and does your laundry.

I work every day with home care attendants - workers who support people with disabilities and seniors who live independently at home. As we come to a climax in our national conversation about how to provide every person with quality, affordable health care coverage, I find myself thinking a lot about home care attendants like the folks covered in this front page story in last week’s Philadelphia Weekly.

Remember this sheet?

It shows the amount of Philadelphia business taxes paid by business size. We have talked about it a lot. Just as a reminder, it shows that for taxpaying businesses, the average amount paid in the gross receipts tax by businesses taking in less than 100k for 2006 is a whopping $54. The average amount for businesses taking in between 100k and 500k is $435. That doesn’t seem like a ton of money, right? Yet from every news story, editorial, and blast from the Chamber of Commerce, Philly Forward and others came the idea that this tax was the invention of Satan himself. Why so evil? You have to pay it whether or not you earned a profit or not. (Remember this point, please.)

As Stan has pointed out, the devlish GRT actually does some good stuff. While we always hear the tiny, Lucifer-like GRT forces businesses to move outside of the city, it turns out the incorrigible tax already hits businesses outside of the city for any business they do inside of it. So, if Exxon-Mobil, or Coca-Cola does business in the city (which they do), then they actually pay the tax. So, unless you think that eliminating the troll-ish GRT will make Coca-Cola run to set up shop in Philly, then getting rid of it might be sort of dumb. In effect, we are disarming and giving up money for businesses outside of the city. So in response, the Coalition for Essential Services made a proposal that would increase the GRT, then exempt the first 500k for all businesses, effectively making taxes more progressive in the city.

Now, let’s contrast that proposal with what is actually happening in our city, where taxes are actually becoming more regressive. We spent years lowering business taxes, with the idea that this would be sooooo great for small businesses. And yet, what did we learn from the city?

Philadelphia's free trash-collection service for small businesses will come to an abrupt end July 1, when merchants will be forced to pay $500 a year for the privilege or else hire private garbage-haulers.

Letters notifying business owners of the fee began arriving this week, taking many by surprise.

"It came like a slap to the face. Businesses are scratching and clawing to stay open, and you're putting another $500 on top of that?" said Rita deVecchis, owner of a South Street framing shop.

Although the fee was mentioned in Mayor Nutter's March budget address and passed by City Council as part of last month's budget accord, the $500 fee was largely overshadowed by the budget debate over property and sales taxes.

The fee will be levied on about 15,000 small businesses, and could raise more than $7 million a year for the city, said Deputy Streets Commissioner Carlton Williams.

Ooops. That is right. IF you are a small business, you may a few bucks less in taxes... but you will instead pay for your services, in the form of a $500 flat fee for trash pick up. And, remember that point above, about what makes the GRT so evil- that you pay whether you make a profit or not? Oh, yeah, you pay this whether you make a profit, too. What a sweetheart deal! Comcast, Cigna and others get a huge tax break every year and taxes are lowered. Small businesses get a tiny tax break, and then immediately give that tax break back in a trash fee. And as a byproduct, when Comcast and friends (and Coca-Cola and Exxon) no longer pay, the city’s treasury is further shrunken, preventing the city from providing other services.

Small businesses, like the majority of people in the city, have been sold a false bill of goods with respect to tax cuts. If anything can show what this has really been all about- breaks to big corporations- it is this.

Our internal email system got screwed up recently. If you tried to signup for a username, and nothing happened, sorry!

As an aside, as we approach what I would consider the defining moment of Obama's first term, and maybe of progressive politics- the ability to enact real universal health care when the public wants it and we have huge majorities- it was pretty nice that our Junior Senator from PA is out there saying things like this:

The last thing the American people "want us to do is to wait and delay for 2010 or 2011, because this is the economic threat to our country," Casey said. "If we don’t get this right and get it done, American families are going to pay far too much."