Closed door negotiations begin

Since February, City Council has held 65 hearings on Mayor Nutter's proposed budget. The hearings were the public side of the process. Now, the private side has begun. Mayor Nutter and City Council are engaged in intense negotiations around the city budget.

The budget hearings were held at fixed times and open to the public. The high level meetings between City Council and the Mayor are not. Elected officials will decide how to spend nearly $4 billion worth of tax dollars and other revenue. We can get a sense of what the priorities are going to be from Nutter's proposal and the hearings. However, we won't really know what happens behind close doors until the budget is approved by City Council. Even then, we'll only have part of the story.

Frankly, this portion of the budget process highlights the importance of the press. These discussions are shielded. Journalists have been aggressive about finding out information and bringing it to the public. A group of City Hall reporters even crashed a closed budget briefing that seems to have violated the Sunshine Act. It would be almost impossible to follow this without the budget process without the media.

So, how are things going? Nutter seems to be wrestling with the challenges of governing. Several factors have forced him to scale back his budget proposal. Instead of offering a little something for everyone, Nutter will have to make tough choices about his spending priorities.

Much of this is beyond Nutter's control. The trouble in the national economy has clearly impacted Philadelphia. For example, taxes collected from the sales of real estate are down. That means there is less revenue to spend on everything-- tax cuts, health centers, recycling, and all the other proposals offered by Nutter's budget.

Nutter is also grappling with helping fill the $38.9 million deficit facing the Philadelphia School District. The state and city will need to contribute money to fill the shortfall. The deficit, which is much smaller than last year, is another expense that takes away from Nutter's priorities.

The debate about taxes continues. Nutter has always been a proponent of tax cuts for business. The problems with revenues is prompting a discussion about altering the size and scope of cuts. At the same time, some Council members are arguing for the restoration of wage tax cuts for the working poor.

Another factor is upcoming contract negotiations with city unions. The exact cost of salaries and benefits for city employees for the next four years is unknown. Nutter has budged $402.9 million for contracts, but that number is likely to change as a result of negotiations.

In coming days, City Council and the Mayor will be required to make tough choices about budget priorities. Without a doubt, problems in the national economy and shortfalls in the School District budget highlight how outside forces can impact the budget process.

Report: Youth service funding needs overhaul

The dramatic rise and fall of Philadelphia Safe and Sound brought attention to the complex web of funding streams and organizations used to finance government programs. Now, a new report from the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania looks for ways to completely reorganize the process. Researchers described their findings in an op-ed that appeared in today's Philadelphia Daily News.

The report conservatively estimated that more than $226 million will be spent this fiscal year on after-school and other community-based prevention programs, a much larger amount than in many comparable cities. These funds are spent by various city departments, intermediaries and private non-profits through byzantine pathways, without an overall plan and with inadequate means to collect data and track outcomes.

The report also says that the city is too dependent on a single state funding stream. Of the estimated money being expended this fiscal year, 60 percent comes from Act 148 funds administered by the state Department of Public Welfare. If this money is less available due to strained fiscal conditions or a change in guidelines governing its use, the consequences for the city youth services could be severe. The city needs to diversify its funding sources, including expanded use of the School-Age Child Care subsidy and more support from corporations and foundations.

Thus far, the response from the Nutter Administration has been to solicit proposals from organizations interested in taking over Safe and Sound's responsibilities for funding youth programs. That's a step in the right direction, but does not really begin to address the issues raised by the report from Fels. It will be interesting to see if our reform-minded mayor tackles the bigger problems connected to funding youth programs in Philadelphia.

Super secret plan to fight a budget deficit and budgeting for healthy food

The city's and school district's budgets are getting a lot of play in the news today. The former for its newfound behind-closed-doors status and the latter for a range of issues that should be discussed on Food Network. And by the way, if you're depending on Wireless Philadelphia to access this blog, let me know and I'll start printing it out and mailing it to you.

To start off, while Mayor Nutter may not be seeking to contract out any city services like former Mayor Rendell, there is one thing he wants to "privatize" - budget negotiations with City Council.

After last week's well-publicized flap over the discouragingly misnamed "Sunshine Act", the Mayor and Council have decided to meet in small groups to avoid the suspicious minds of the media, making those minds even more... well... suspicious.

The Inquirer, Daily News and KYW 1060's Mike Dunn all have pieces about these meetings this morning. My morning routine of listening to Newsradio in the shower (it's the only thing that comes in on my shower radio) greeted me with the kind of titillating story that includes phrases like "sources tell" and "sources say" which tip me off to the fact that I'm being let in on a secret that the mayor doesn't want me to know.

That secret:

Sources tell KYW Newsradio that the Nutter administration is considering an increase in Philadelphia's hotel tax, as it struggles to revise its budget for the coming year.

So wait. If I want to stay in one of those big, fancy Center City hotels that are about 7 blocks from my house, I'm going to have to pay 1% more? Noooooooo!

Apparently, the real problem is with the 5-year plan which seems to be a little out of whack now that it's clear that the economy is slowing and fewer people are paying the same real estate transfer tax that the folks who are selling me my house will pay. The Inky gets a quote from Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez who sums it up pretty succinctly:

"[Mayor Nutter] is going to have to figure out what he is willing to give up. . . . He can't get the tax cuts the way they are scheduled and still keep all this money on the table for all the priorities that he outlined."

That oughta set tax reform advocates a buzzing. From Brett Mandel at Philadelphia Forward:

One idea that should be rejected immediately is any notion of stopping the city’s tax-reduction program. The city's modest tax reductions have slowly and steadily improved the city's competitiveness and the gap between national job growth and city job growth has been almost cut in half since the city began its tax reductions. Without continued improvement in our tax competitiveness, there is no reason to believe that Philadelphia will do anything but continue to lose jobs and lag economically.

So following the post-inauguration honeymoon period, the sides are starting become clear. Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez - who is probably not alone - is providing the loyal opposition and asking the necessary questions about the tax cutting priorities while the Mayor and other council members have shown their support for a position not unlike the one outlined above by Mandel - though probably not as fiesty!

Over on the school district budget, WHYY's Bill Hangley spoke to some folks who understand that while serving healthy, locally-grown fruits and vegetables in the schools may cost a little more, it should be seen as an investment.

After all, as reported in the Daily News, they've already made an investment of sorts in forgoing a bunch of revenue that they used to get by selling soda and unhealthy snacks to school kids. Unfortunately, it seems that - like gambling revenue going to New Jersey and Delaware - that money is going to your local corner bodega:

[District Chief Operating Office Fred] Farlino said many students skip the federally funded breakfast program because they come to school too late or they fill up on corner-store snacks on the way to school.

The comments section of that story makes the usual under-informed if passionate case to blame the parents for not making breakfast. Show of hands: how many people had time to cook themselves a complete and healthy breakfast this morning?

As if that weren't enough, the District also had to answer to Council for possibly replacing those unhealthy snacks and sodas with tainted beef. Mmm Mmm good.

Ok. So they weren't necessarily replacing the snacks and sodas with the bad meat but even so, not even being able to tell whether they got any of that downer cow goodness got into their cafeterias should be enough to turn any kid into a vegetarian.

As for Wireless Philadelphia, looks like it will be dealing with its own tainting - having the plug pulled. Metro has more.

The award for reporting some actual good news also goes to the Metro for letting us know that despite what's going on with every other government and municipal agency in the country, SEPTA, for once, is going to be ok:

Instead of the annual begging for state money, the transit agency is now preparing to build on an $80 million surplus in funding it received last year, SEPTA officials said last week.

What has happened to the Miracle on the Delaware?

Via Philebrity, check out this time machine that takes you back to Philadelphia in the mid 1950s - a time when Camden was apparently our "equally industrious, equally prosperous neighbor" and Levittown was only 2 years removed from being "farmland and forest."

The video turns out to be a big long infomercial for WPTZ which is what KYW (that's Channel 3) used to be.

How many major Philadelphia employers can you spot that aren't there any more? What has taken their place?

And what ever happened to all those awesome flashing signs?

Back and forth on budget meeting

Last week, a group of City Hall reporters demanded access to a private budget briefing Mayor Nutter gave to City Council. Reporters argued that the Pa. Sunshine Act, which makes it illegal for elected officials to deliberate in private, gave them the right to be present at the meeting. Nutter eventually allowed the reporters to attend the briefing, but not before making clear that he believed their interpretation of the Sunshine Law was incorrect.

This incident has sparked a lot of discussion and comment on various blogs that cover politics. Chris Brennan posted a great summary of what happened on Clout. Brennan ends with a quote from a source who believes reporters should have access to these types of meetings:

Teri Henning, general counsel for the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, had a different take [than Nutter]. She said the attendance and participation of Council members added up to deliberation under the state law since they will one day have to vote on the city's budget. "The intent of the Sunshine Act is to allow the public to observe the discussions and deliberations leading up to a decision," Henning said.

Heard in the Hall also had a post on the subject, but the Inquirer blog seemed to be a little more sympathetic to Nutter's position. Here is the graph that provides the Administration's viewpoint:

Nutter administration officials are plainly angry about the incident. They say that the administration has so far been remarkably open and transparent. That is absolutely true. Reporters' questions are answered promptly. Facts and figures that in past administration were difficult to obtain without filing an official and time consuming right to know request are now handed over with little to no fuss. And Nutter and his senior staff remain remarkably accessible to the press.

Over at Young Philly Politics, City Councilman Wilson Goode wrote his own defense of holding closed door meetings. For him, the main sticking point is the difference between a briefing and a deliberation:

15 of 17 members accepted an invitation from the Mayor to receive a briefing on new budgetary issues.

That's profiling. :)

I am not a lawyer. I have no idea if the meeting held last week was a violation of the Sunshine Act. I do know that it looks bad for the Nutter Administration to even try kick reporters out of meetings. After all, this is the candidate who campaigned on restoring accountability and transparency to City Hall. Still I can't help but point out that the accounts of the meeting published the next day did not really reveal anything that we didn't know already-- namely that revenues are lower than expected due to the struggling economy.

For me, the real issue is how can the public be involved in the budget negotiations now that the public hearings have ended. The next month or so will be dominated by behind the scenes wrangling as Council members try to squeeze every dollar possible out of the budget. How can the public know about these discussions and have some involvement in the decisions that are made?

Cooperation or Domination? Thoughts on the SEPTA board

As a daily SEPTA rider, I've always kept a close eye on any news concerning the public transit agency. An article in the Inquirer takes a closer look at the board of directors responsible for overseeing the nearly $1 billion SEPTA budget. The story, prompted by two appointments soon to be made by Mayor Nutter, highlights an ongoing pet peeve of mine: the small amount of representation given to Philadelphia despite the fact that we make up the majority of riders (and funders).

I'm all for regional cooperation, but the SEPTA board is closer to suburban domination. Just take a look at the regional composition of the board vs. the statistics provided by SEPTA about how is actually using the system on a regular basis. According to statistics from SVmetro.com, 78% of SEPTA's daily riders are Philadelphians. That means that the majority of revenue generated by riders, expected to be more than $300 million in FY08-FY09, comes from the pockets of Philadelphians. The membership of the SEPTA board has the opposite demographics.

Only four people on the board-- Jettie Newkirk, Denise Smyler, Christian DiCicco, and Herman Wooden-- actually live in Philadelphia. The rest come from the suburbs counties that, even when combined, make up the minority of those who use SEPTA. I am not saying that suburbanites don't care about the issues facing urban dwellers or that they should not have a voice on the SEPTA board. However, the fact remains that giving Philadelphia greater control over how revenue is used-- money that comes straight from our pockets-- is basic fairness.

City officials have tried two approaches for increasing our clout on the SEPTA board. The Street Administration basically went to war, suing the transit agency over fare increases and threatening not to renew the lease that allows SEPTA to operate the Market El and Broad Street subways. In contrast, Mayor Nutter seems to be trying a charm offensive. He has reached out to the new leadership at SEPTA and will be appointing two new members of the board in coming days. Nutter seems to believe that a soft touch is the best approach.

I'm not sure which approach is likely to yield results. Any thoughts out there about what needs to be done to increase Philadelphia's say over how our fare dollars are spent? Let me know in the comments.

Podcasting the School Budget

I'm excited to announce the first It's Our Money podcast! I sat down with Helen Gym from Parents United for Public Education and Wayne Harris, who is the budget director for the School District of Philadelphia. I asked both of them to explain the major issues facing public schools in Philadelphia. You can listen to the podcast by clicking here.

Bonus links: Parents United for Public Education and the budget page for the School District of Philadelphia.

Reporters crash closed door budget session

Michael Nutter campaigned on the promise of open government. Yesterday, that claim was put to test. A group of reporters found out about a private briefing that violated a state law prohibiting elected officials from conducting public business behind closed doors. WHYY reporter Susan Phillips was there and provided It's Our Money with a first hand account of the action:

The Mayor found himself in a stand-off with reporters today over the state's sunshine laws. City Hall reporters caught wind of a budget briefing Mayor Michael Nutter planned to conduct with Council members behind closed doors. When reporters insisted on being present, the mayor send an aide and one of his body guards to rid the room of journalists. KYW's Mike Dunn told those present that if there is a quorum present-- that's more than nine Councilmembers-- it must be open to the press.

5) Council wants to know when the Fire Commissioner will be filling vacancies among emergency services personnel.

Finding the Bucks for Bike-sharing

I moved back to Philadelphia from Western Pennsylvania about a year ago and one of the first things that I noticed was the large number of people who ride bikes around town. Now, a coalition of groups is pushing to establish a bike sharing program similar to the wildly successful PhillyCarShare. City Council held a hearing on the subject yesterday and I decided to dig into exactly how the city can pay for something like this.

Here is how bike-sharing works: The city or a non-profit installs bike racks in strategic locations around town. City residents (and anyone else) can borrow the bikes and return them to the racks. Advocates say that bike-sharing programs can take cars off the streets and reduce the burden on mass transit agencies.

The cost of each bicycle can run as high as $4,500. That's mostly do to the need of special technology designed to decrease the amount of bikes that are lost or stolen. Given the budget constraints already facing Philadelphia, it seems unlikely that the government will provide the funding necessary to get such a program off the ground. Luckily, there are alternative ways to raise revenues for bike sharing.

Several cities in Europe and the U.S. have experimented with selling advertising space on bikes and other locations like storage racks. The fees from advertising are used to pay the purchase of new bikes, maintenance, and to build the infrastructure required to run the program. In Washington DC, the city has teamed up with mega-advertiser Clear Channel Communications and made bike sharing available to the public for an annual membership fee of $40.

Personally, I am a big fan of selling advertising space to pay for the program. This seems like the best option to get the cash needed to buy the bikes and install the necessary equipment across the city. Using advertising revenues seems like a smart idea because, to some extent, it innoculates the program from having to worry about finding funding every year. Right now, it seems like City Council and some foundations are interested in figuring out a way to fund bike sharing. That might not be true in a year or so.

On the other hand, many think that our culture is already saturated with advertising messages, and there are few too places where we can escape the relentless and corrupting beat of "buy me." Any good alternative ideas out there? Share, please.

Bum-bots, super metros and how "tube" in California is more than a surfing term

It's been a while since I checked out one of my favorite blogs - Governing.com's 13th Floor - and man, have I been missing out.

These guys are great at passing along information about innovative, creative and sometimes downright wacky things going on in other cities or being attempted by state and local governments.

Let's take a quick look at some good ones from just yesterday.

How about the Bum Bot? Apparently a bar owner in Atlanta has developed a robot that rolls around outside of his bar and sprays loiterers with a jet of water to move them on their way. Apparently the thing is pretty popular since its inventor thinks he has a shot at being mayor. His platform: a robot on every corner and a spray of water for every vagrant. Video included.

DId you ever wonder what people in 1955 thought the world would look like in 1975? Apparently there's a whole website devoted to that and it is AWESOME. The site, Paleo-Future.com, includes some maps like the Super Metropolis Map of 1975. Like the 13th Floor says, it's a pretty "spot-on prediction" of what shape regional development would take if not by 1975 then at least by the 1990s. Unfortunately, one of the predictions that hasn't yet come true was the optimistic view of how we would get around in these Super Metropoli:

They will be saved from traffic self-suffication by high speed transportation -- perhaps monorails that provide luxurious non-stop service between the inner centers of the supercities as well as links between the super-metropolises themselves.

I want my Monorail!

And finally, do find yourself dreamily wishing you could go to that paradise known as California - at least the one portrayed in those ubiquitous commercials with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rob Lowe? Well, for now you may have to settle for the state's own Youtube channel. While not Laughing Baby good, there are apparently some pretty entertaining videos on their from a variety of state agencies. Bonus: none of the videos feature a certain second-most famous animatronic groundhog.

Ok. Back to work everyone.