A very interesting article from It's our money

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/our-money/How_Phillys_amnesty_compare...

Question one: The article compares various tax amnesty programs from various cities and various states, and reports that unlike many of those other amnesty programs, the one coming up in Philly does not include a payment plan. Why is there no payment plan in the Philly tax amnesty? Is there some basis in research for a determination that a payment plan will result in less tax paid in the end?

After trying to get through to the Water Department (so I can change a bank account on my auto-pay) for over 1/2 hour, and getting only a busy signal, I decided to call 311 to see if they might be able to help.

I've now been on hold at 311 for 10 minutes, and annoyingly, I keep getting cycled between some pleasant classical piano music and a loop of a ringing phone and a tape of someone assuring me that my call is important.

So, I'm just curious to know if my current death by a thousand 311 customer service recorded message loops is anomalous. Have others been using 311? How has it gone?

I guess I'm just not paying enough attention - but I don't remember reading about this before:

In addition to the core disagreement of how to raise revenue to close the deficit, Council members' key criticisms of the administration's budget were:

It relies too heavily on the approval of state legislators, such as the proposed penny-per-dollar increase in the sales tax. "That's pretty shaky ground," Councilman Bill Green said.

It asks Council to approve a contingency budget - a cut-intensive alternative that would close some facilities - in the event the legislature does not assist the city. The contingency plan is short on some key details, leading Green to say Nutter is asking Council to write him a "blank check."

Did previous reports about the budget speak to this "contingency budget," or is Nutter actually trying to sneak this through under the cover of City Council?

I just heard Mike on WHYY explaining that he thinks that Philadelphians are starting to understand why there's a budget crisis in Philly: We are beginning to understand now that the global and national economic downturn is having an impact on Philly's economy. My guess is that Nutter would attribute our new found wisdom to his campaign for "civic engagement."

Oh, and btw, he explained that the upcoming serious of public meetings will give us an opportunity to understand what it's like to have to balance a budget.

Can this man be any more condescending?

I'd just like to let you know my opinion on those stadium luxury box tickets the City owns: Sell them.

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20090129_Daniel_Rubin__Mayor_Nutter...

I mean, yeah, it could have been worse

While members of City Council and other elected officials took 87 of those seats, they were used much more often by nonprofit groups, rec centers and those truly needing something nice, such as the families of slain police officers.

(I wonder which Councilpeople were using those tics?)

But if a Republican like Bloomberg can give them up in NY, I think a Dem in Philly can do the same. Especially when you consider that 27 folks "got to watch the playoffs and World Series in seats given to the City Democratic Committee."

If I'm not mistaken, there has been more unanimity at YPP around the issue of libraries closing than any single other issue since I've been logging on. In fact, I don't believe that I've seen one comment in support of the library branches closing.

To unify this, uh, opinionated, group takes some doing, and I think that Mayor Nutter deserves all the credit.

A new commenter posted a comment the other day about participatory budgeting, and asked if anyone was interested in the topic. No responses.

There have been a few comments/posts in the past about participatory processes of city planning and budgeting, but in general they have been received with a conspicuous silence.

I find this kind of curious. There is no shortage of well thought out ideas about plans and budgets at YPP. Great thinking about where the casinos should or shouldn't go. Great thinking about where revenue should and shouldn't be generated.

But there seems to be, at least to me, relatively little interest in what I believe is clearly the most effective and progressive way to run a city - through participatory methodologies. Does anyone doubt that? Is it happening here? If not, why not? Doesn't anyone care about this stuff? Do people think that we are just so far away from implementing such practices that it's impractical to focus on large scale changes when there are very real and immediate issues that need energy and attention?

I need to vent.

I welled-up as Obama took the stage. I found myself wishing that my parents, who were active in civil rights their entire lives, were still alive to see an African American president. I had reasons to be discouraged by what's happening on the local front - but still had a spring in my step.

And now Obama has appointed Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff. I'm trying to hold on here, but my ol' skepticism is rearing its ugly head. I need a boost. Can anyone tell me why selecting Emanuel isn't a repudiation of the "hope and change" rhetoric?

Supreme Court, taxing the rich, a focus on healthcare - all, obviously, very important considerations. But Rahm Emanuel?

Rep. Cohen gets a whole lotta grief here at YPP. But whether you agree with him on issues or not, he's here, engaging in dialogue with his constituents. I appreciate that. Wilson Goode still participates pretty actively, even if often it comes in the form of self-promotion. Jim Kenney? Disappeared after the elections were over. Dwight Evans? Gone. Surrogates for Fattah? Nada. Bob Brady? Zilch. I hope that even those who disagree with Mark on issues the most respect the fact that he's willing to engage on issues - even when he knows going in that his stance will be very unpopular here.

I'm working with a group of young students (ages 18-21) from Western Europe and Scandinavia, primarily children of immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia, who are here in our great city studying in a Fullbright/State Department program. They've been awarded a $200 book stipend as a part of the program (courtesy of your tax dollars), and are asking me for book recommendations. Ok, here's your chance to have direct input in how the State Department spends your money and participate in your very own hearts and minds program at the same time. What books would you like to recommend? I can think of few groups as erudite as the YPP readership, so I thought I'd get some help from ya'll in making suggestions:

Ok, I was impressed by Obama's speech to the conference of Mayors posted here recently. Not a bad speech. But, hmmmm, there have been a string of disappointments out of the Obama campaign recently. To me, the most significant was his turn around on public financing. Sorry, I get all the arguments about practicality, but taking huge money from big donors is taking huge money from donors. Period. I am also pretty concerned about the "guilt by association," "gotcha" baloney the Obama campaign has embraced with respect to the comments by McCain's campaign advisor who said that McCain's campaign would stand to benefit if there were another attack on the U.S. Would anyone here argue that Black's statement isn't at least a viable perspective, if not definitively true?

Ok, I'm supporting a candidate for president who, based on his policy platform, is fairly centrist. Now, I find myself hoping that he'll ask the former Secretary of the Navy under Reagan to be his running mate. Despite differences with Jim Webb on a number of issues, (he's a self-described "Reagan Democrat' no less), I feel that his approach is compatible with Obama's. I wouldn't have a problem with Webb: he's reasonable people, who takes reasoned approaches to examining issues,

Take a listen to this interview, and tell me whether I've completely lost it.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90595861

That title sounds a bit like a "What I Did Over My Summer Vacation" essay - because this is essentially going to be a comment with a title stuck on it as opposed to a "post" (in keeping with Dan's request that we write posts).

Actually, the calculus is fairly simple:

I see little of significant difference between them policy-wise. So, as much as I dislike "identity politics," or whatever the right term is, my decision for supporting Obama is based on how I judge the campaigns they've run, and my sense of the comparison between Obama and Clinton as people.

Given that it seems to be getting increasingly likely that the PA Dem primary will have some meaning, I’m wondering whether there will be some kind of consensus among Philly “progressives” as to who is the candidate of choice; and even more than that, I’ve been wondering whether Philly “progressives” will coalesce to support any particular candidate.

So, I’m hoping that we might have a discussion at YPP. Not an argument. A discussion. Where are the YPPers? Have there been attempts to coalesce around particular candidates, or is everyone just going their own way?

Maybe, a way to get the discussion rolling is to make a few comments about the different candidates? I have nothing deep or particularly insightful to add. It’s all pretty much conventional stuff – largely reflecting the type of dialogue we are seeing in the popular press. But maybe the conventionality of what I have to say will inspire others to feel free to add their two cents.

Remember the heady days of the pre-primary run up? Dan and Sam Durso with their Battles Royale, representatives from numerous campaigns posting almost daily, updates of updates of updates of policy statements, daily policy debates about the intricacies of the BPT and stop-and-frisk and congestion taxes, insults galore and shills by the dozen, and last but not least, frequent posts from elected officials and candidates running to replace them.

Not that I'm complaining about the quality of YPP discussions since that time, but I'm wondering about the implications of the changes that have occured in the general nature of the dialogue here - and one change in particular: why has the apparent interest in YPP on the part of elected officials dropped off so significantly?