City Council budget hearings, which begin February 26, give city departments a chance to testify about their budget needs for the coming year. We're giving the public a chance to testify about what they think the city should spend its money on. Leave a comment on this post and make your voice heard about how you would draw up the budget priorities for the city. We promise to make sure Council gets a copy so be as specific as possible.
We encourage you to attach a name to your comment or, at the very least, some sort of nickname so we can keep track of who is suggesting what. If you'd like to submit testimony via email, send to to waxmanb (at) phillynews.com and but "Budget Testimony" in the subject line.
Thanks and keep the ideas flowing.
(Edited to add)If you got to this site through whyy.org, you may have missed the editorial in the February 25th edition of the Philadelphia Daily News. Click here to read up and get even more of an explanation.
Comments (12)
Thank you Daily News for this project. It's not a substitute for the opportunity to testify directly in City Council chambers as our representatives deliberate, but it's the next best thing. Hopefully Council will be watching what we print here, if not listening to what we say there.
One Philadelphia is still hopeful that the Council President will open the process to the live testimony of neighborhood residents. Even then, though, this will be a valuable forum. Thank you again, Daily News!
Posted by Stan Shapiro | February 25, 2008 8:56 AM
Please use the budget for the people!! We need crime reduced, by a better funded educational system, to train better people, to create better sustaining jobs. Then these parents can raise more successful children as our taxes supply more recreational activities with quality recreation centers. Our taxes should fund a more progressive police department with a functional court system. Be sure to fund a better system for previous offenders so this cycle of destruction can ultimately end for most people in this city.
Thank You,
Kesho Watson
Advisory Council President
Granahan Recreation Center
267-679-7053
Posted by kesho watson | February 26, 2008 1:52 PM
Kesho,
Thanks for participating in this part of the "It's Our Money" project. We will be sure to include your testimony when we communicate with City Council. Keep up the good work at Granahan. And feel free to get in touch with Ben, our "It's Our Money" reporter, if there are stories from your neighborhood that you think we should know about. You can email him directly at waxmanb (at) phillynews.com
Dan
Posted by Dan | February 26, 2008 3:40 PM
Council is spending time on raising money with new taxes (valet taxes, etc.) but hasn't put an industry-standard effort into collecting the taxes already levied, billed, and long overdue.
Almost $500 million in uncollected property taxes as lien debt against real estate is never "bad debt." That's certainly the policy in other cities, states, and counties, who foreclose on overdue property tax debt no later than two or three years.
Yet Council treats is like it's impossible to collect. If that were true, there would be no real estate tax collection unit of the Dept. of Revenue, no Law Dept. that does foreclosures on behalf of the city, and no Sheriff's Real Estate Tax Collection process.
What needs to be done? All these functions need to be placed under one agency that is independent? Does the BRT need to be dismantled of local judges who are elected and replaced with appointees from outside the local political schema? The BRT has a role to play since under-assessment occurs under it, a la Fumo-mansions. Does the Dept. of Revenue need to be contracted out so that friends and relatives can't subvert the certification of debt for foreclosure?
This money is collected -- always has been. Let's work on expediting that process. Why does Council ignore the money that the BRT assessed but that 113,000 property owners in the city don't pay?
The budgeting process is meaningless if we can't count on this revenue to come in as real dollars for schools, safety, and sanitation.
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If anyone is unaware of what is owed in back due property taxes, here is an independent accounting of it based on a FOIA act request that updated monthly using city data:
www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary
It shows $494 million in overdue taxes. What city allows this? Even a state would not simply gloss over this amount.
Note that only a little is one or two years old. Most of the debt is several years old, and a considerable amount is ten years or older, as you can see from the simple chart.
If the city ONLY focused on collecting taxes that are over a decade overdue, it would have $260 million in overdue money.
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I just got back from a meeting where a private nonprofit requested a neighborhood community group a commitment of $40,000 a year to maintain a stormwater/green space median in a neglected area of town.
Of course we want to do it, but my question is where does the tax money go that should be paying for things like this. You drive into Maryland and see green medians, trees, green scaping, walkability/bikability efforts EVERYWHERE.
Answer: it's been billed but not paid. Even if Philly only collected overdue bills from people who don't live here, that would get $48 million into the budget. Schools need that money this school year. We could have a pedestrian bridge to University City from Center City to rival London. We could have a Streets Dept. that maintains street trees and green scape.
We could be a city on par with the better cities of the world. What is the hold up?
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We could get rid of the wage tax if we foreclosed on overdue property tax debt:
Step 1. Collect overdue property tax debt of $500 million on the 113,000 overdue properties in the city be foreclosure.
Result: $500 million in real dollars, and new owners who pay taxes in current market values.
Step 2. Foreclosed properties are reassessed in current 2008 market values, so pay taxes in real time. Those foreclosed, formerly delinquent properties have fresh new owners who accept that you have to pay property taxes every year in full and on time.
Result: $500 million more each year in properly assessed properties paying real property taxes in full on time.
Step 3. Sell at open, competitive auction the city held properties that owe property taxes, or should owe property taxes:
www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/topdelinquents/mailingaddress
See: the city owns thousands of properties that don't pay taxes until a new owner buys them.
Result: $300 million in revenue from sales over the course of the next 5 years, $200 million or more in new owners who pay property taxes where before there were none.
To wrap up: collecting overdue property taxes nets $500 million, selling property owned by the city plus getting new property tax revenue for that newly owned property nets $500 million, and the new property taxes paid from putting the formerly overdue privately owned properties back in the tax base of currently assessed market value properties nets $500 million.
That's $1.5 billion, much more than the mere $1.2 billion garnered from the wage tax.
But growing a tax base has a lot of costs, primary among them being that Philly will have fully capitalized, invested, owned tax base.
Growing a property tax base, instead of killing a property tax base by having too much government ownership of property that must pay property taxes creates a system where weird job killing taxes have to make up the difference.
The budget has to address this. Other states have money because they have prompt, real time property tax collection and foreclosure to enforce it.
I don't even think that the Council members who presided over the dismantling of a government funded by the ownership of private property can appreciate how well it actually works. They seem wedded to big government ownership even in the face of so much evidence that government is not a good owner most of the time.
Government can't pay itself property taxes. So any realization of decreasing wage taxes must involve a Council who understands and accepts this at the budget level. Government as owner of masses of property, since property tax payment is on hold for the duration, is on its face a bad owner that doesn't contribute.
A good budget takes that into account, and makes changes to the status quo.
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Right now the city accepts bifurcated funding. Revenue is provided by property owners who pay property taxes, and the property owners who don't accept that they must pay property taxes are ignored by the city for the most part, with wage taxes making up the difference in underassessed, unpaid property taxes.
No budget that doesn't address this is growing a tax base that will pay for schools you want to send your kid to.
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Philly needs less government owned property. Just like the PMH building on N. Broad -- you can have a private owner rent the building for the purpose needed, but the philosophy of the building paying taxes to contribute to the fabric of the city has to be inviolate.
Posted by ljlong | February 29, 2008 1:39 PM
I think this is a great opportunity to get nput from ordinary folks ... thnak you.... I'd like to see some dollars invested in providing LED light bulbs to the community .. it'd sure help people save money in electricity and help the environment.. Yes the initial investment is high .. but the pay off is noticable in very short time .. PECO is now offering a 20% discount .. but a give away would be very helpful to people who are having difficult times theses days. If the Goevernment can do it for HD TV .. why not for the something everyone needs today.
Again, thnaks for opportunity ...
Posted by susan | March 11, 2008 12:34 PM
I've been in Philadelphia for almost six years and this city has been very good to me. I've worked as an EMT, spent spent six months operating vessels in support of the Athos 1 oil spill clean up, went to nursing school at Jefferson and have been a nurse there for the last two years working with stroke victims and spinal cord patients. But this summer I'm moving away. Philadelphia has many good qualities great bike lanes, Philly CarShare, accessibility and plenty of educational opportunities. But the the combination of Federal, State and City income taxes takes too big of a bite. The murals are phenomenal but even they can't cover up the garbage that litters this city. I've managed the entire winter to get to work without taking the trolley. Juniper station, the trolley stop at 30th street and the underground corridors are all an insult to the senses. Maybe they'll be cleaned for the upcoming primaries but this city needs lasting change with clean up efforts all throughout. That would be great to see when I come back to visit.
Posted by Theolonius | March 11, 2008 4:09 PM
The city needs a new approach with the sanitation contract.Currently a truck picks a limited number of loads.This usually requires around a half days work.
Why not try a productivity type contract.In New York city the sanitation workers get a bonus at the end of the year based on the productivity savings.The employees got as much as $10,000.00.The benefit to New York was no overtime during the year.The workers in effect were trying to build up the bonus pool of money.
Posted by eo2000 | March 12, 2008 2:52 PM
I'd love to see Philly become the next great city.
I think most of the crime is related to the drop out rate. I grew up in the suburbs and out of my graduating class of 300, we only had 5 kids drop out. There is a 50% drop-out rate in Philadelphia. We're never going to raise up blighted neighborhoods when kids aren't graduating from high school. I'm not sure how we do this - better funding? better teachers? outside-the-box classes (art, shop, electrical, etc?) How can we instill confidence in children who come from broken neighborhoods, families and social circles? I know many of the young men in Philadelphia feel like they do not have power, and unfortunately, gangs offer that. The young girls have no respect for themselves because they feel they aren't worth anything. How do we tell kids that they are worth the world when their neighborhoods & schools are crumbling?
Next, we need to take pride in our city as an vibrant urban environment. Trash cans are hard to find in any place other than Rittenhouse, Society Hill, and Old City. Many of our neighborhoods are forgotten because they don't draw tourists. I realize we have to keep the tourist spots clean, but what about the rest of the city? I think tree-planting efforts, community gardens, & more public rubbish bins all create sustainable neighborhoods that we can be proud of. It's a crime that Rittenhouse Square is spotless, but the other parks in the city are well overdue for new plantings, trash removal and overall care!
We also have to do something to entice businesses to Philly. I own a dog walking service, and our local tax burden is horrific. Large corporations get tax breaks, while the small businesses - which are the ones that drive our economy - are burdened with tens of thousands of dollars in taxes. (We pay such high business taxes, yet our roads in Bella Vista aren't even plowed after winter snow storms!)
Lastly - we need to stand up against the casinos! Small bars, restaurants and other entertainment hot spots WILL go out of business should we allow them into our neighborhoods. Look what happened to the restaurants in Atlantic City? Crime will go through the roof, problem gambling will destroy families and up-and-coming neighborhoods will slide right back down. (NOTE: Let's start calling them for what they are. They're not casinos - they're slot parlors. We're not going to have black jack tables or poker games. They're slot parlors. Sounds a lot less classy, huh?)
Posted by Carrie | March 13, 2008 3:00 PM
City Council should no longer fund drug and alcohol rehabs in communities that are overwhelmed with these facilities. There should be some sort of equitable distribution of these centers throughout the city. Now, it seems only certain communities (such as Frankford and Tioga) are targeted. Frankford has over 12 funded rehabs. Our community group has been told that Frankford "needs" these facilities. Okay, but do we need 12. Every man, woman and child in Frankford could pick up a substance abuse problem and there would still be excess capacity.
Posted by Rita Lugrine | March 18, 2008 2:00 PM
Hey folks,
This is great input. I especially like to hear about ways the city could operate more efficiently like the garbage pick up example above. Please feel free to use this space to tell your story about your neighborhood.
For example. Rita. Great tidbit about Frankford and Tioga. Would you be able to list the addresses of each of these facilities so we can dig a little deeper into this question and possibly determine just how much city funding each one is getting?
We'd like to do some work with maps to illustrate this kind of concentration and compare it with other neighborhoods to determine whether your instinct - that they're not equitably distributed - fits with the statistical and geographic evidence.
Thanks!
Dan
Posted by Dan | March 19, 2008 4:29 PM
Investing in quality preschool programs would pay back our city in many important ways:
1. Children get an important "head start" in school. They develop social skills as well as learning skills.
2. Children and parents learn about good nutrition. Children might receive healthy snacks and lunches as part of the program.
3. Childcare assists working parents or parents who are continuing their education. Parents with reliable childcare are more productive employees and more successful students.
4. Quality preschool programs can affect parenting. Good parenting skills are modeled by the professional staff and relationships with the staff help influence parents.
5. Well trained preschool educators who form relationships with parents can often determine if a family might require a special support such as adult reading instruction, anger management, financial counseling, etc. and help direct the family to appropriate social services.
6. Training preschool staff and increasing the number of quality educated professional preschool teachers will create many new job opportunities.
INVEST IN QUALITY PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS!!
Posted by Kathleen Amrom | March 29, 2008 11:32 PM
PUBLIC ACCESS TV STUDIOS to create economic growth in Philadelphia non-for-profit sector.
Philadelphia non-profit sector counts over 5000 non-profit organizations with budgets over $250,000 totaling over $1.3 billion. (Source www.guidestar.org)
Public Access TV STUDIOS will provide very much needed outreach material production tools which will enable these organizations to reach out in a more efficient way to their specific constituencies.
Developing both the non profit sector and the creative sector will be economically beneficial to the city.
Philadelphia should help its non-profit sector grow for two reasons.
1) it helps Philadelphia's economy
2) the non profit sector and governmental sector are complementary. Both are primarily involved in natural resource and human resource investment and management.
The non-profit sector, not the for-profit sector, is the natural ally of government.
Best and friendliest,
John F. Lohac
Phone: 215-523-9951
Cell: 215-514-0564
129 North Mole Street, 19102-1404
Posted by John F. Lohac | March 31, 2008 11:03 AM