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If you were Mayor...
Submitted by Dan U-A on Thu, 07/21/2005 - 1:33pm.
A question for our readers, contributors, etc:
Let's say you were the Mayor of Philadelphia, or the Governor of PA. If you had one executive order that you could use to create any law or policy that you want, what would it be? Would it address a specific focus like education or the environment? Would you instead try and do something related to how Government functions?
You are the Mayor. What would you do?
Mine
I guess I should give mine: I would go the governance route, and institute full public finacing of all local and state elections.
There are a few "transformative" isses that I could think of, such as fully, equally funded schools. That said, I think with publicly funded elections, our slate of candidates will broaden and improve, and we can have a much greater ability to use organizing to make real changes.
When I'm Mayor of Philly
Well,..first and foremost,..I'd eliminate the City Wage tax. Period. No grace period,...no gradual decline. Budget cuts to compensate would come out of the "feed, clothe and babysit the children of irresponsible parents" fund. Let the local Red Cross, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, and Episcopalion Diocese take over that expense.
Second,..any elected official (white, black, Asian, etc) that makes a racially-derogatory comment loses his/her job on the spot.
Loser,....
Daniel,..face facts,..this neo-Socialist BS the Dems have been shoving down our throats won't work.
And,..as you Dems like to say about "W"...don't blame me,..I voted for Katz.
hmmm
Well, obviously TrekMedic's comment was inane and simply a Repubo-facist attempt to get "progressives'" goat. I won't miss comments that are focused on attacking other people rather than furthering discussion. But I don't quite get your response. How, exactly do you define "inflammatory?" Will this particular commmet get "deleted at will?"
One more thing
I'm a bit confused for another reason. You indicate that this blog is "not a debating society." Does that mean that you don't appreciate posting comments as a form of debate on issues? That doesn't seem consistent with what I've seen on this blog in the past.
Guvna
The first thing I would do if I could pass any laws would be to un-gerrymander our Congressional Districts. Second, I would follow Dan's lead with education and take it a step farther, increasing the public fincancing for the State and Community College systems, and espescially in the areas of technology and science, in an attempt to make PA one of the best states for high-tech compaines to move to.
for starters...
-more bike racks
-payphones that work
-eliminate wage tax for workers making less than $50k a year
-eliminate 10 percent city tax at tap on the sale of beer and liquor
-eliminate Register of Wills office
-streamline process for small and medium sized businesses to have access to the same pool of tax breaks and low-interest loans that larger businesses have
-bar committeepeople from serving as judges of elections
-ban judges of elections from locating polls in the homes of committeepeople
-alter city charter so the city commissioners, who run city elections, are civil servants, not elected posts
-streamline workflow at mayor's office by appointing seven ombudsman with full mayoral authority to get potholes fixed, trash picked up, empty lots cleaned, and generally dispense city services by interfacing directly with managing director's office
-post all election results and campaign contributions on city website
-Enforce Sunshine Law at City Council meetings
-enforce law banning public officials (such as the Zoning Board's Eleanor Dezzi) from active participation in political campaigns
-ban financially strapped public agencies like the DRPA from running ads with no apparent purpose in the Public Record
mmmmmpppphhhhhh
That was the sound of me vomiting in my mouth at your response.
read the mission of the blog
See it? It says this site is for Young Philly Progressives. This is not a Philadelphia debating society, nor is it the letters page of the Daily News.
Everyone is more than entitled to their opinion. Everyone is not entitled to posting it on here. From now on, I will just delete inflammatory comments at will.
so the wage tax is off limits?
any discussion of dispensing with it is "inane" and "Repubo-facist", and constitutes "attacking people" rather than "furthering discussion"?
Nah, I don't mean that. I me
Nah, I don't mean that. I mean, this is not "Crossfire" or Hannity and Colmes, not some left v right battle.. The site is a place for progressives to organize, vent, and of course debate.
actually, no
Touché -- I should have been more precise.
Although I disagree with eliminating the wage tax, I would hope debating that issue would be a worthy goal of this blog; my sense was that TrekMedic's comments were meant to be inflammatory (as Dan rightly indicated), rather than further discussion. The inane Repubo-facist comment of dubious intent was "this neo-Socialist BS the Dems have been shoving down our throats won't work." And the following comment: "Budget cuts to compensate would come out of the 'feed, clothe and babysit the children of irresponsible parents' fund" also seemed more intended to get a reaction than raise a serious point.
Do you disagree? If I want exposure to inflammatory liberal-bashing, I can just turn on Rush. It does seem that people interested in that kind of interaction have other arenas, and shouldn't post on this site. I have enjoyed reading well-reasoned comments on this site from folks of various political stripes, and hope to continue doing so.
Inflammatory?
Daniel,..I'm going to say a few things, then let the subject drop:
1) If you're going to use words like inflammatory, don't post something childish like "I just vomited." I'd think someone educated enough to operate a blog would be above that.
2) Debate, in all forms, is the backbone of a democratic society. If you can't handle what's being said by the opposite side of the fence, leave the table now and let someone else handle this blog.
3) I agree w/ Rox Pub - since when is debate about the city wage tax, and how it is driving out the public at large into suburbs that can't handle the increase, off-topic.
4) Yes, I occasionally shoot from the lip. I neither regret, nor retract, my statement about the children of irresponsible parents and their drain on our economy. Unlike some groups, I don't mollycoddle or rephrase things to make them more palatable.
That said - debate on!
First of all, I was responding
First of all, I was responding to this comment: Budget cuts to compensate would come out of the "feed, clothe and babysit the children of irresponsible parents" fund. Let the local Red Cross, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, and Episcopalion Diocese take over that expense.
Things like that are inflammatory, and are not welcome on this blog. OK? As I said, from now on they will be deleted as fast as I see them.
You have plenty of right to say all you want, but again, this is not some bland public forum. This is a site aimed at young, progressive Philadelphians. If you don't like it, you can always stop reading. Period.