Let's catch up with a couple of budget-related stories before the disappear in the world of philly.com archives.
Keep telling the story about the out-of-whack property tax valuation story. That's what Stu Bykofsky did on Monday with this piece about a bunch of properties (including his own) that saw their BRT-determined market value go up while others remain under assessed.
I got some sage advice on Monday that even if a story has been done before, it's worth retelling over and over again until the issue is resolved. In my case today, it's worth blogging about someone else telling that same story again.
In today's Daily News, A Republican ward leader (yes, we have those in Philadelphia and they don't all work for the Parking Authority) takes issue with Mayor Nutter's dance around certain charter-mandated salaries. Really, I'm surprised that City Council hasn't come up with the idea to make themselves all deputy mayors and get extra pay from that. I guess since they can just vote themselves a pay raise, that step isn't necessary.
When Senator Casey isn't joining Senator Specter in grilling the Department of Housing and Urban Development, he can be found delivering $5.3 million in aid for low-income housing. The money isn't from HUD but from a the regional Federal Home Loan Bank in Pittsburgh. Here's your history lesson: "The Pittsburgh bank covers Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia, and is one of 12 such banks nationwide chartered by Congress in 1932 to guarantee funding for mortgages, according to the bank's Web site."
The Inquirer's Great Expectations project continues with more citizen input for the future of the city. The good news is City Council is participating. The bad news is, they're like the party guests who never want to leave:
And they have shown up. Some have been to multiple sessions, including at-large members Jack Kelly and Bill Greenlee, the Fourth District's Curtis Jones Jr., and the runaway leader (six sessions), new at-large member Bill Green, the son of the man who once so famously denigrated the body.
Green the Younger has consistently impressed citizens with his candor, his grasp, and his vision for high-tech reform of government, even if sometimes his veteran colleagues roll their eyes at his lengthy orations.
There is a budget-related section in Chris Satullo's column when he writes about Councilman Wilson Goode's post-election candor about real estate valuation:
Property tax revaluation was another high-interest topic. Speaking in Mount Airy, Councilman Wilson Goode Jr. showed the frankness that a politician fresh from easy reelection can show, telling folks that the revaluation everyone fears is desperately needed to end the crazy-quilt assessments that tend to be most unfair to working-class Philadelphians.
Wouldn't it be better if he just asked people: would you rather be able to connect your property taxes directly to me and my council colleagues as we vote to raise or lower your rates and you vote to keep us or give us the boot or is it better for some unelected body to raise your taxes by changing the very value of your house?
Finally, the city's new health commissioner doesn't seem to like STDs all that much and he'd like you to know that some of our money is being spent to prevent their spread. A worthwhile goal indeed.