Four of the six declared candidates showed up, including every Democrat except Anthony Hardy Williams. The church was packed. The feeling was electric, filled with a sense of accomplishment at putting together the first ever Philadelphia debate organized to highlight the interests, needs, concerns and goals of Philly's real people. I'm talking about people coming from all walks of life who have profound, immediate problems, and who need a politics that is real, rather than petty and personal. By their presence the candidates affirmed the importance of these communities of real folks, represented by both the 350-400 people in the room, and by the 90 advocacy organizations that had worked their butts off to make the event happen. The questions were substantive, the answers more or less so, but no one left feeling they hadn't learned a lot about who these people are that want to lead our state.

So the big news was the event, not any one individual. But it was also clear to me that the guy who is most in sync with the diverse and pressing needs of Philadelphians is Joe Hoeffel. Hoeffel repeatedly made clear that nothing good would be coming from the state unless we found ways to fairly raise revenue for the Commonwealth. So he made repeated calls for the kind of progressive tax reform that I have never heard a gubernatorial candidate make in all my years of following PA politics. The list of reforms he advocated included a progressive income tax, closing of the loopholes in the corporate net income tax that make it virtually a voluntary tax, and high, immediate taxes on gas extraction in Pennsylvania with no coddling of that industry. He also was the only candidate calling for recognition of gay marriage, and repeal of the abortion control act. His answers on questions related to prison reform, education funding, housing, AIDS funding and raising the welfare grant were all sensitive and appropriate to the imperatives of those issues, as were those more or less of Onorato and Wagner. (Rohrer, a right wing Republican, was, of course, coming from a different planet.) Yet Hoeffel clearly spoke with more passion about those things, and, given his willingness to raise revenue, much more credibly. He's definitely the guy I want to see sitting in the Governor's mansion in January.

But that's one man's opinion on the candidates. Whoever people may have left the event supporting, the greatness of the evening was that it happened, that so many of those who so often need to scramble just for the slightest recognition by anyone in power, had that power come to them to see their aligned strength. Now if we can keep that force going, the page that was turned last night will be the first page of a great new volume of Philadelphia history. Kudos to all those who had a hand in making this debate truly great, in particular Sherrie Cohen of CES and Gloria Gilman of NN, but including dozens of others who pitched in selflessly and anonymously to make this historic event seamlessly come together.

OUR Gubernatorial Forum, organized to raise the voices of working people, women, the LGBT community and the poor, is happening this Thursday evening at 7 PM. The location is Arch Street United Methodist Church, 55 N. Broad Street in Center City. If you’d like the concerns of regular people to be heard in this campaign, help us fill the Church so that the candidates can see our power. Please come out. We know the weather isn’t great, but being at the great progressive debate of 2010 will warm you up!

Just as importantly, on Wednesday at 12:00 noon, a key rally for health care will take place at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, 419 S. 6th Street, just below Pine at Addison Street. The “wise” people in Washington think we’ve given up on quality, affordable health care and that we will give them a pass in November for just letting the issue ride. This rally will say NO to that! Immediately after the rally a march to Washington will take place culminating in a rally there on February 24. Let’s give the marchers a great sendoff that they’ll carry with them all the way.

This is where we get to ask questions, and they will provide real answers. More than seventy local community and advocacy groups, led by Neighborhood Networks and the Coalition for Essential Services, will be holding the gubernatorial candidates' feet to the fire on February 18 at 7 PM at the Arch Street United Methodist Church, 55 N. Broad St. This is the debate you'll want to be at, so put it in your book now. We will be sure the snow stays away so you don't have to.

There are two great coalitions around that are working on City and State budget issues, both with much the same name. There's CES which stands simply for the Coalition for Essential Services. That group is focused on City budget issues. Then there's SEPCES which is the Southeast PA Coalition for Essential Services. Both of these were somewhat successful last year in preventing the worst of proposed City and State budget cuts from being implemented. But, as most of you know, substantial cuts were still made. More State budget cuts were made just a week or so ago by Governor Rendell.

The battle is about to stop even deeper cuts in an environment of shrinking revenue. Here are two ideas for improving how those of us involved with the coalitions might improve our lobbying this year and into the future.

The Democratic Party. One day it lifts us so high . . . remember November, 2008? Of course you do. But then it wins and it tries to govern. And suddenly it gets completely torn between the interests of its grass roots supporters, and those of its corporate, big money sponsors. It tries to walk that narrow line and it falls on its face. And then we get Scott Brown. And then we do the bleeding.

I’m not going to detail here any further what’s wrong with the Party. If, dear reader, you don’t think anything is wrong, I would suggest that you save your time and your eyes, and read no further. But if you are fed up with the right wing drift, lack of coherence, and/or governing incapacity of the donkeys, then here’s what you can do about it this very Spring: BECOME THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

Well, everyone, Happy New Year. Now buckle up; we’re in for another rocky ride. Here’s the news that you’ve been waiting for according to yesterday’s Daily News:

With the holidays over, city budget season rears its ugly head.
And while the economic freefall of the past 18 months seems to have stabilized, Philly's dark financial days are not over as tax revenues continue to lag and costly union contracts are looming.

It seems that we have this little problem. Those greedy city workers want a salary increase, and don’t necessarily want to let their pensions and health care benefits drown. Wage tax receipts are likely to be down $50 million this year. Every Department head has been asked to come up with budgets that are down 7.5% from this year’s already shrunken totals.

I can't vote for Brett Mandel for Controller. I've said that a few times before on this blog and given reasons. But today I want to explain why Brett can't ever get my vote from a bit of a different angle. And that will require a little digression. I hope you'll bear with me. Because this Controller's race squarely raises the question of what kind of Philadelphia we want to live in.

Brett Mandel wants to cut Philly taxes for all business -- eliminate them really -- because he sees one business as good as any other. He wants to bring as many businesses here as he can, and to assure that once they're here, they stay. I don't.

There's this Chart that Councilwoman Sanchez obtained from the Department of Revenue last year about who pays the Business Privilege Tax.

Yesterday the Mayor announced the horrible set of possible scenarios facing all of us in the next fiscal year starting July 1. It doesn't have to be that way. Here is One Philadelphia's plan to avert catastrophe. For more info, go to our website at onephiladelphia.org

ONE PHILADELPHIA FIVE YEAR BUDGET PROPOSAL

Mayor Nutter is forecasting a deficit of more than $1 billion over the life of the City's next Five Year Plan covering the period from Fiscal Year 2010 to 2014. To cover the shortfall, City officials have revealed that major service cutbacks are likely in such areas as trash delivery, homeless services, health centers, libraries, fire and police services, recreation centers and virtually everything else that Philadelphians rely upon. These cutbacks would come in the face of a growing economic upheaval that is throwing thousands of Philadelphians out of work and stressing the City's social service delivery service system to the breaking point.

OK, folks, let's see if I can get your attention. I think it may be that we should have cuts in Philadelphia taxes.

No, I haven't gone all Brett Mandel on you. I'm not for tax cuts at any price, nor do I see them as the best tool for moving, shall we say, Philadelphia Forward. If cuts in Philadelphia taxes mean the slightest decrease in City services, or cuts in benefits for City workers, I remain against them. But Philadelphia, compared to other cities and counties in the State is overtaxed . . . by a lot. That's not only wrong from the standpoint of economic policy, it's just plain unfair. And tax equity should be a value that's high on the list of anyone calling themselves progressive.

Tomorrow morning at 10 AM, Neighborhood Networks members will be gathering to give back to the Mayor the big lump of coal that he's delivered to the people of this City by way of library closings. Along with the coal, we'll have hundreds of statements and signatures from people around the City who can't believe how he's trying to ruin this season, and seasons to come by closing our libraries. If you'd like to personally take a lump of coal back to the Mayor, come meet us at 10 AM at the Northeast Corner of City Hall.

Who knows, Scrooge changed his mind; so may the Mayor. And if you'd like to sign our petition, and leave a few words for the Mayor, there's still time. Just go here:http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/NN_savethebranches/index.html

Neighborhood Networks' Town Hall Meeting: "We Are the Change We Need" is almost here.

Date: Monday, November 17, from 7-9 PM.

Place: First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut Street

More detail about the conference is down the page. But first let me say a little about why this is such an important event.

It's a tumultuous time. Change is in the air, and there's much more to come. All of us who read or write on this blog want to be agents of that change and we want it to move in the direction of peace and justice.

In the last week we've been debating big issues, some that affect every person on earth, others that affect every Philadelphia kid who may have no place to swim next summer.

One question we haven't discussed -- although we have in the past -- is how do we organize ourselves effectively to influence the change.

It's barely 48 hours since the exaltation of Obama's win. But the mainstream effort to curtail Obama's progressive instincts has already begun, with a wide variety of politicians and pundits opining as on cue that the new president must go slowly, depend on Republican support, and delay perhaps indefinitely, anything that represents a real change of course. As progressives we have to fight that narrative tooth and nail.

Many of us put enormous energy into the fight to elect Obama. We owe it to all that we care about to fight like hell to make his Presidency a transformative one, not one that gets us all stuck in the middle of a potholed road. And so we must model ourselves after our new president. We must all become community organizers.

We learned some good things.

We learned that Mayor Nutter is not the complete ideologue he often seemed to be while in Council, on the issue of business taxes. Then he tried to mandate into law the complete abolition of the main business tax, the BPT. He did this repeatedly and relentlessly, and fortunately he failed. Now, in his first budget as Mayor, he proposed much more moderate BPT cuts, abolishing the gross receipts portion over 8 years, and cutting the net income portion by 12% over the same period of time.

Even more encouraging, when the Mayor learned that the City had a revenue problem due to the recession, he proposed that Council slow the BPT cuts even more. Council followed his recommendation, so now it will take ten years to reach the Mayor’s target, rather than the 8 years he initially suggested.

It looks like the whole tax package will be voted on by City Council tomorrow. The deal that's been cut will apparently slow the elimination of the gross receipts tax to a 10 rather than 8 year timetable, and also slow cuts to the net income portion of the BPT. To accomplish that, and offer various goodies to Councilmembers, the Mayor will apparently spend down virtually the entire City fund balance now at approximately $200 million.

The other economy the Mayor is more than willing to make is to ditch the one part of the tax code that makes it marginally progressive, the wage tax rebate program pushed through by the late Councilman David Cohen at the end of his life. In deference to Councilmembers who chafe at voting for outright repeal, the Mayor is apparently proposing a one year postponement. That's a tactic that has already been used twice. If Council goes for it again, that will be a signal that it intends to let it slide forever into infinity. It is pretty outrageous that on a day that Nutter made it a point to appear at a press conference with John Edwards lauding an effort to fight poverty by, among other things, expanding the earned income tax credit, he is pushing an effort to deep six its Philly equivalent. While pushing tax cuts for Ford, Apple, Budweiser and most of the rest of the Fortune 500.

Wilson Goode is rumored to be unwilling to let this go without a fight. If you think it plainly immoral to let working people hang while giving tax breaks to multinational corporations, call your Councilperson now, and let them know. And, if this is really getting to you, come to Council tomorrow at 9:30 or so, and pigeonhole your favorite representative for a few moments while they still have a chance to do the right thing.