- And this blank page where my fingers move
- Pennsylvania Hunger Games Diet: Cash for Corporations, Cuts for Kids
- The Incredible Shrinking Mayor
- Multi-tasking with the 1% … killing the schools AND making the poor pay for their funeral.
- Council Can Give the SRC the Money to NOT Privatize the System
- Predatory Payday Lending Bill Flies Out of Cramped PA House Committee
- Let the Games Begin: PA Senate Announces Details of Budget Proposal
- Good News on PA Revenue But Don’t Count Your Blessings Just Yet
- Defeat Corbett
- Set off without a Paddle: Unpacking the School District’s Disaster Capitalism
The Fattah Opportunity Agenda
Submitted by Chaka Fattah on Mon, 02/19/2007 - 2:57pm.
Hello Young Philly Politics,
I read this blog every day, but I have never written because my schedule doesn’t always permit me the time to respond to the comments that always seem to be generated. However, today I have introduced to the city the centerpiece of my campaign for Mayor—the Fattah Opportunity Agenda, and I thought it was time to write to all of you. The Opportunity Agenda is at its heart a plan to leverage more of the city’s resources to tackle poverty head-on.
The Opportunity Agenda includes the ambitious goal of halving poverty in the city by 2020 by investing more than $150 million a year into effective, proven programs. I will do this by creating a new source of revenue through a new private-public partnership with the Philadelphia International Airport.
The Opportunity Agenda is a big idea--but we live in a city founded on big ideas--and this is a blog full of big ideas--and I wanted to make sure that you had a chance to digest and talk and think about my plan.
Before I get into the details about that, a little bit about me first. At the age of 25, I was elected the youngest person ever to serve in the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives. I may have lost that title to Tony Payton Jr.-- but trust me, I know what young Philly politics is all about.
When I was first getting started, I would have loved to have had the ability to broadcast my point of view—one that was rarely in tune with the reigning powers that were—the way that so many bloggers have recently.
Some of my colleagues, have been threatened or befuddled by the rise of the local blogging community, but based on my experiences and my own entrée into politics almost 30 years ago, I get it.
The folks who write for Young Philly Politics, Philly Blog, A Smoke Filled Room, Philebrity, Phillyville, Afronetizen, MyDD, and more have found a way to voice their concerns and their hopes for Philadelphia’s future. When I was coming up, I needed to find a way to voice my concerns too and that is why I ran for City Commissioner in 1979.
I ran with Curtis Jones, and while we were too young to have served had we been elected, we used that campaign to get out an alternative perspective to the dominant narrative in politics then. African-Åmericans had begun to build some power in the Democratic Party, but the voices of younger members of the community were not always heard.
I didn’t win that election, but I learned a lot—including the importance of an effective, well-trained, and people-focused field operation--and I persevered. With the help of a community of people who felt the city needed to be reformed as much as I did, I got elected to the Pennsylvania House in 1982.
Getting elected for the first time didn’t make things all that much easier for me. I still had to fight to do what I thought was the right thing. And every subsequent election was still a battle. In fact, I have never won an election with the backing of the city Democratic Party (I should qualify this by saying that I did have the party's support inmy bids for re-eelction as an incumbent).
That all being said, I feel a kinship with citizens and community leaders who understand that it’s not enough to blame someone else for the problems in our city. I respect bloggers who are working hard to start a dialogue about ideas that will shape a better and brighter future for our city.
That’s why I want to invite you to You can see the whole thing here, but in short, the Opportunity Agenda is my plan to cut the poverty rate in half by 2020 and invest more than $150 million a year so that our children receive the best education, and help our city get organized so that all of the government organizations and private sector entities that deal with children start talking to each other.
Today, 25 percent of the people who walk our streets cannot share in our city’s wonder. 105,000 children live at or below the poverty level and thousands more struggle in the shadows with their own set of challenges just above.
Ladies and gentlemen, poverty is expensive. It’s costing us too much in the lives that might have been. It’s costing us too much in the lives that are. And it’s costing this city too much in what we could be.
I want to enact a real Opportunity Agenda, and the first step in making this ambitious plan to half poverty a reality is secure the revenues to pay for it.
The Philadelphia International Airport is an asset we need to put to use for our city. That is why I will propose a new Public Private Partnership that creates a long-term lease of the airport to a U.S.-based company that protects our workers. With a concession agreement, the city can establish and maintain goals for minority and women-owned concession contracts at the airport.
We could generate nearly $2 billion in new upfront revenue. This makes our Opportunity Agenda revenue neutral and fits into our balanced budget. It ensures that no new taxes will burden our people and businesses. And it guarantees the money we need to break the cycle of poverty so it won’t break the bank.
For 25 years, I have worked with people from all walks of life and I know that if you do the work, be patient, and seek out the best and the brightest, you can change people’s lives.
That is why our second step must be to get organized. Before we spend a single cent of that new money we raise, we have to ensure that the city services designed for our children are actually working for them.
Our children are waiting for us—the leaders of this city—to act. They have no choice in the lives they are born into, but we have a choice in what kind of future we can help them build for themselves.
We know that only 66 percent of our kindergartners have received formal early child care and education. Decades of research tells us that investing in the minds of children between the ages of three and five yields extraordinary returns to both our society and our economy. Let’s master the science of early child care and education by making it easier for more children to qualify for affordable early childhood education and better train our teachers and educators. Let’s commit to this so that more than 100,000 of our poorest and youngest are ready to become Philadelphia’s best and brightest.
We know that early literacy is a leading indicator of future academic success. The research—the science—tells us that when a child can’t read and falls behind in their early years, they may never catch up. How is it that all across this city, we read about those studies and yet, we fail to comprehend what we must do? Philadelphia must master the science of teaching our children to read. If we fail to teach them the “A, B, C’s,” then how can we expect their desire to learn to catch flight?
We know that all across Philadelphia—all across this country—math and science education is falling behind. If we encourage our children from the start, give them the choice, then more students will see that it could be their calling.
We know that this kind of sweeping opportunity cannot start and end at the elementary and middle school doors. We must bring opportunity to our high school students.
We know that too many of our high school students give up and drop out. Let’s lift them up too. Let’s show them that college is possible by making it more affordable. CORE Philly is working to keep our kids in school. In 2004, we supported 7,000 Philadelphia students through their first year of college and 93 percent are still enrolled.
We know that 80,000 Philadelphians have some college education. We want to build a city that helps them finish the dream. We know that life-long learning pays. The evidence is clear. According to a 2002 study by the Census Bureau, those who earned a Bachelor’s degree earned $1.1 million more over their lifetime compared to a high school graduate. Those who earned a Master’s degree made $2.5 million, Doctoral degrees made $3.3 million and those with Professional degrees made $4.4 million throughout their lives. Let’s give those 80,000 Philadelphians the chance to get their diplomas.
This is personal for me because I have lived it. I’ve had parents and teachers and a city that was there to help me. Education is everything and I want every child in this city to know that I am committed to them having even greater opportunities than I had. We can master this science too. It is as simple as it is written, “We reap what we sow.”
I believe in the generous force of government. It is good and it can change lives. It is a matter of approaching things in an innovative way. That is why we want to bring City Hall to every neighborhood every 10 weeks. That is why we want to bring health care to every neighborhood and make sure every citizen receives a check up once a year—insurance or no insurance.
I know these are some big ideas and some big goals. But this is how I work: that’s why I worked to take those public housing high-rises down so that our kids had a front yard and a back yard; that’s why I launched GEAR UP so that 6 million kids could believe the college dream was theirs; that’s why I fought for a citywide scholarship program in CORE Philly, and that is why I fought to bring hundreds of thousands of people off welfare and to work.
I believe that it’s better to create more lawyers than more teenagers who’ll need them. I believe that you build neighborhoods by turning more tenants into homeowners. I believe that jobs are created when you create more opportunities for people to turn good ideas into prosperous businesses. This is what I believe.
With your help, we can get the revenue in place with the long-term lease of the airport. We can get organized and our childhood services can start talking to one another. We can establish a Philadelphia Opportunity Foundation. We can launch a pilot program in the regions of our city. We can do this to break the generational cycle of poverty, make our city safer, and bring real opportunity for every Philadelphian. It makes sense to dream big dreams in Philadelphia. That’s what you do in the city where our country was born.
I believe that this city is bound to fly too when we bring opportunity to every person. We’re going to defy decades of despair. We’re going to defy all those who gave up on trying to stop the cycle of poverty. We’re going to defy gravity and lift our people up.
Read the whole plan here.
I will be offline for much of the rest of the day. However, I will do my best to address any comments or questions you may have and I have asked my staff to step in as well to answer your questions.
Thank you, Congressman, for
Thank you, Congressman, for coming on here.
First- thanks for acknowledging this
The plan, at first glance seems pretty ambitious. I look forward to reading more, asking some questions, and fleshing it out on here.
crikee
guess I need to start taking Phillyville a little more seriously...
______________________________
Phillyville
A good start, follow-up questions
Congressman Fattah,
I commend your work on outlining what has the potential to be a landmark initiative. I'm particularly excited about your iniatives concerning early childhood education and college-high school partnerships. Alas, I do have some questions about the implementation of these programs. About early childhood education, many states have manditory early childhood ed in Kindergarten, and some states even have manditory pre-K education. Would you move to institute a legal requirement, or just promote awareness and availability? If so, how would you specifically go about doing this, and what effect do you expect it to have? Secondly, specifically regarding the high school-college partnerships, how would students be selected to participate in this program? Would they have finished a high school curriculum? Would the partnering schools also agree on accepting the students to matriculate fully into the university after graduation? Lastly, you mention updating classroom with new technology, including smart boards and lap tops. What about basics, like text books and classroom supplies? Would a school recieve funds to use at their discretion, or would some schools be recieving all this technology with poor or insufficient main texts with which to lead instruction?
Again Congressman, I sincerely congratulate you in examining some of the most pressing issues which face Philadelphia's young citizens carefully and proposing good, pragmatic solutions. I hope to hear more as your candidacy progresses.
I'll bite...
Congressman,
While I don't disagree with the purposes of your proposal, I do disagree with the means you propose.
Why do we need a "Philadelphia Opportunity Commission"?
You propose to allocate $2B from the proceeds from leasing the airport to the POC that will be chaired by "civic, education and business leaders" to oversee the implementation of your Opportunity Agenda. Don't we have a government or something that's supposed to handle this kind of stuff???
Is it too much to ask that our elected officials and city workers do their job???
Fundamentally, this proposal strikes me as incredibly undemocratic. Considering some of the shenanigans in the nonprofit community that have come to light in recent weeks, it does not make sense to me why we need to create an entirely new body that will operate without the direct oversight of the democratic process.
Ruby Legs
______________________________
Phillyville
Airport Concessions
Congressman,
Could you please clarify the airport concessions plan. The airport currently has concessions and the "Philadelphia Marketplace", including retail stores such as Brooks Brothers, the Gap, and a full food court. It appears that there is already a concessions agreement with MarketPlace Redwood, L.P. Is this the case? I do not understand how your proposal will change what appears to already be in place. Please correct me if I am mistaken.
Concessions
Concessions currently fall under the federal program (49 CFR parts 23 & 26) which have significant limitations on goal setting, business size & personal net worth requirements not existing under the City's M/W/DSBE regs. If I read this correctly - he's proposing to try and shift the entire operation from functioning under the Federal guidelines. I'm not sure that's possible - but - much more could be done with the program if it is.
$1.9 Billion in Revenue?
Kathy, thanks for your reply. My concern is more about revenue than it is about minority business contracting agreements. I just don't understand where $1.9 Billion will magically appear from. The Gap will not pay $200 million more in rent for no good reason. Does the proposed lease agreement merely substitute a front-loaded payment for an on-going revenue stream, or does it actually discover revenue that is not being generated under the current privately managed concession arrangement?
EDIT: FYI, $1.9 Billion is more than half of Philadelphia's annual budget of $3.7 Billion. It's a lot of money.
Redundant
In your new "Fiscal Stability Plan" you say you will eliminate the BPT and institute a new Net Profits Charge. Since the BPT already includes a Net Profits Tax, why wouldn't you eliminate the Gross Receipts Tax (as others have advocated) and alter the current Net Profits Tax rather than creating a whole new tax?
Also, you say, "Chaka Fattah will seek legislation from Harrisburg, and use court action if necessary, to eliminate the Business Privilege Tax." Would there need to be enabling legislation from PA in order to eliminate a tax that is imposed by and only applies to the City of Philadelphia. Would this be necessary? Am I missing something?
I support Michael Nutter for Mayor
Watermelon?/ This is our future Mayor....
What in the world was Milton Street thinking when he woke up this morning and decided to have a interview with NBC 10 this afternoon? Just when you thought you heard it all , he never disappoints!!
Junior Williams
juniorwililams007@earthlink.net
http://mycityscapephily.eponym.com/blog
I'm deeply impressed
with your plan, Congressman, not so much with the details, but with its theme and how it deals with economic issues. Your central idea is that the City has to invest in its people. Yes, it's important to bring new businesses into the city, and they will hire some of our people, but what I hear you saying is that there is tremendous human capital in the City of Philadelphia which we cannot and should not ignore as we seek prosperity for all of us. Now all of the candidates say this to some extent, but for you it's the centerpiece of what you seek to do.
And that means that you're willing to find innovative ways to bring new resources to the City to invest in its human capital. Thus your airport plan. And thus too the nature of your fiscal plan, something which you didn't talk about much above, but which you released this morning. If I read that plan correctly, you recognize that taxes need to be restructured to eliminate the unfair levy on gross receipts and to impose business taxes solely on net income. And that the new, revised, and fair, business tax would continue to bring in the revenue that the current business tax currently raises, because you aim to invest in more human capital, rather than less.
You want to start investing as soon as possible, as I understand your position, rather than when the possible and unknowable benefits of across the board business tax cuts might kick in. And your understanding of how a local economy expands is by providing more opportunity to its people, who will then share the benefit of their personal development with the wealth that they create for themselves and their community.
So I think it would be very helpful to the debate and discussion that is taking place on this site and in the community if you would tell us whether this understanding is correct and whether, therefore, you intend to fully fund the service and opportunity programs you envision by keeping your new fiscal plan -- apart from the proceeds of your airport plan -- revenue neutral. Some people believe we can do more with less. I don't believe in that particular magical approach, notwithstanding the need to always be honest and efficient with government funds. So I would appreciate knowing your view.
Commentary.
I can't get to the plan itself right now, but here's some interesting commentary from the Inquirer's morning piece:
And this on the tax element:
Jennifer
Yuck
That has "patronage" written all over it.
Why not lease it kit and kaboodle with no strings attached?
Regulate
Because (gasp!) something as important as the airport needs some form of government regulation. We can't just let the private sector run wild.
---
http://benwaxman.com
Top Airport Officials aren't regulators
The City of Philadelphia doesn't regulate airport operations, that would be handled by the Federal Government no matter what entity controlled the airport.
That clause would clearly be about patronage, not regulation. And no business looking to lease and run the airport would be interested in having political appointees as part of their management team.
Come lease our airport from us, pay us $2 billion and we'll hand pick your management team and tell you how much to pay them. It doesn't take a Master's from Fels to see how silly that proposal is.
I support Michael Nutter for Mayor
Regulate
Because (gasp!) something as important as the airport needs some form of government regulation. We can't just let the private sector run wild.
---
http://benwaxman.com
Stan, you say this about the
Stan, you say this about the Fattah plan:
In his exploratory committee, I mean, campaign's plan, it says the following.
In order to generate the same revenue immediately, I would guess that the "new" Net Profits Charge (interesting how it's not a tax, but a charge) would have to be higher than the current 6.5% level, since the Gross receipts tax is immediately being eliminated and I can't imagine that applying the 6.5% tax to the broader base of businesses would make up for that immediate shortfall.
So if we are raising the net profits tax and applying it to all businesses, what businesses would our new tax structure be more competitive to? It seems to me only those that don't make a profit. I don't know of many non-profitable businesses that hire a lot of new workers, do you? And those technology startup companies aren't popping up quite as often as they were 7 years ago.
As for the portion of the plan that would tax businesses from other areas at the rate that they had been taxed in their previous jurisdiction. It would only apply to businesses with 5 or more employees that have existed for 5 years. This would do nothing to encourage people to start new businesses in Philadelphia and it would actually put businesses already operating in Philadelphia at a competitive disadvantage to the "new" businesses in their sector, which get to pay a lower tax rate for five years.
I can feel the new jobs being created already. In Montgomery County.
I support Michael Nutter for Mayor
Free ride for everyone but Nutter
I get the feeling that Stan is giving a free pass to everyone but Nutter, or at least anyone who doesn't want to lower the BPT. Stan raked Nutter over the coals for not specifying how to pay for every last detail in proposals for changes, but accepts that Fattah can make $2 billion appear.
Whoa, has anybody read
Whoa, has anybody read the comments in response to the Inquirer's story on Fattah's plan. I won't say they qualify as enlightened debate, but some of them are at least entertaining. They're below the article:
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16730542.htm
I support Michael Nutter for Mayor
They sound like they're
They sound like they're mostly from a long term resident of Mom's basement who considers Andrew Dice Clay an intellectual role model; and believes in his heart he's Trump's unacknowledged bastard step-child. Delusions of adequacy.
From what he is saying, I am
From what he is saying, I am thinking he is going to try to fight Harrisburg and allow Philly to do a graduated business tax structure, so smaller businesses get taxed less than bigger businesses.
The plan says nothing
The plan says nothing like that. If that were his plan, wouldn't it stand to reason that it would be in his plan?
I support Michael Nutter for Mayor
Must have been something I
Must have been something I read in a different location. I will try to find and reference it.
How come there are any businesses still in Philadelphia
especially with the radical tax-cutters endlessly talking up how crazy any business must be to put up with the horrors of it all? Let's restructure taxes in a way that helps those weak, small businesses that need help, get other businesses to pay their fair share, and obtain the additional resources we need and deserve from other governments. But let's not jump to the conclusion that if you help some businesses and increase taxes on others by an amount we don't even know, that the end is near.
It would be a valid argument
It would be a valid argument if the population flight wasn't easily documented and growth in surrounding areas wasn't significantly greater than Philadelphia.
"You say we need to plug the crack in the dam, but I say we don't because there is still water in the reservoir!"
What the city has been doing over the last decades obviously hasn't worked.
Your local Mega Giant Corp. needs your help?
To answer that question as long as a business can underpay the overqualified, this city will always be a hotbed for corrupt businesses. As long as our children drop out without any education, no expectations it will always be exploited by corporations for their gain(Ex. Walmart). There is billions to be made in this city cause no one asks or fights for it. They have no choice but to juice our city for everything they can get and then run out of town.
(your local casino says hello!!!!)
Junior Williams
juniorwililams007@earthlink.net
http://mycityscapephily.eponym.com/blog
Where do you read this Stan???
Where in Fattah's plan do you read anything like this?
You didn't find that in his plan, because it isn't there. Have you performed a mind-meld with Fattah so that you know things about his plan that are not contained therein?
Here's what is there. A plan to give established businesses that relocate to Philadelphia a competitive advantage over businesses in their sector that are already in Philadelphia by giving them a lower tax rate for 5 years. That's a brilliant way to help Philadelphia businesses and keep them in the city.
I am no sort of radical, and you are the one with the "end is near" mentality when it comes to reducing the BPT, but the Fattah plan does not stand up to the commmon sense test.
It is incredible to me that you would advise people not to jump to conclusions, when you have jumped to so many of your own with regard to Nutter, reducing the BPT and what you believe will be the end of city services in Philadelphia.
I support Michael Nutter for Mayor
Fattah Plan
For full disclosure, I just wanted to let folks know that I'm the Policy Advisor for the Fattah for Mayor campaign.
The goal of Fattah's policy regarding business taxes is to make the tax on business, simpler and fairer on all businesses, while ensuring that businesses pay their fair share of their civic responsibility. Some businesses in our city have very high gross receipts but very low profit margins. The gross receipts portion of the BPT unfairly hurts these businesses, is onerous and needs to be ended.
One of the reasons that tax cut advocates often cite for the need to cut the BPT is that high taxes prevent businesses from moving into our city. Fattah wants to attract businesses here and believes that providing tax neutrality between their old location and Philadelphia for a certain period of time could be a useful incentive. However, whatever advantage these firms would receive compared to other businesses would not be major and would be worth the jobs and tax dollars they would bring to our city.
Fattah believes that the most important thing to boost business is to make sure we have a well-educated workforce, which is one of the goals of his Opportunity Agenda.
I'm Waiting for Stan Shapiro to Rip Into You...
While I agree with you, this is the exact same stance that Michael Nutter has advocated.
Now Stan, I'm waiting for you to rip into Fattah the same way that you did with Nutter.
Be fair Stan...
What I also understand from Fattah's remarks, David,
from the logic of what he said, and from supporters within the campaign, is that he expects the new, fair business tax to raise essentially the same amount of money as the old tax. Because without that, the new cash from the airport deal would have to go to existing services, rather than new services. Am I wrong about that?
Stan, you are right
Stan, you read the plan correctly that the new net profits charge would produce the same aggregate revenue for the city as the BPT does now. However, this revenue would be produced through a signifcantly simpler, more streamlined, easier to manage charge on net profits.
Existing businesses
I think that owners of existing businesses in Philadelphia would disagree with you on both counts. They might have a different take than the Fattah campaign as to whether this would "make the tax on business, simpler and fairer on all businesses."
Even accepting your premise that the advantage these firms would receive wouldn't be major, this policy would send yet another negative message to Philadelphia business owners about how they are respected/valued by City Government.
Also, in discounting the size of the advantage the incoming businesses would receive, aren't you calling into question your own contention that this would be a "useful incentive?"
I support Michael Nutter for Mayor
Take out $400 million of city revenue from the City budget
and yes, I think the end is near. As to Fattah's plan, perhaps I was too optimistic that it's a restructuring plan rather than a sharp cutting plan. I've posed the question below twice. Hopefully we'll get a clear answer.
Stan, It is what it is...
Don't be nice. Fattah's BPT cuts would be the same as Nutter's. Now light fire to his ass!
If you don't, you lose all credibility regarding your BPT argument.
I'm counting on you...
Doesn't seem like this is true
See Dr. Stuff's post from 5:50 PM today. The most important line from his plan is: "To keep the city's finances revenue neutral, Fattah will propose a Philadelphia Net Profits Charge." It doesn't seem that Fattah believes in magic.
allocation
I think the real issue here is the probability of successfully leasing the airport. It doesnt appear that this has been done successfully in many instances and we need to know why it would actually happen here. If it can be done, the best use of the money needs to be explored. I dont see why some of the revenue shouldn't be used to lower business taxes or subsidize housing development for middle income families. Planning a social program with goals 13 years away is very tricky and has the potential for collosal failure. I think other uses of the money need to be explored. Fairmount Park surely could use a huge funding increase.
Also, I think it adds a
Also, I think it adds a smoke and mirrors aspect to it.
What if after three years eh hasn't leased the airport yet and received that revenue stream. That means he apparently hasn't done any of his campaign promises either.
Fattah Responds
Thank you for all of your comments and questions. I appreciate the feedback and will try to answer as many of them as possible.
We know what works in terms of helping children and adults improve their life chances, and the most important thing is education. The numbers speak for themselves.
Research on improving student outcomes shows us the way forward. My plan calls for using evidence to guide our priorities. The evidence tells us that investing in early childhood education, particularly early literacy, is crucial to future success throughout school and later in life. California and Indiana use the number of second and fourth graders who do not read at grade level as a means for predicting future prison costs, reiterating the importance of increasing early literacy to our society.
Through my Opportunity Agenda, I intend to mount an aggressive effort to promote the importance of early childhood education to parents and other stakeholders through a new architecture for providing children and families services: the Mayor's Children and Families Services Coordinators. These coordinators will be responsible for children in one of our city’s 181 elementary school catchment areas. These coordinators will be responsible for outreach to families in each area so that we increase the number of children who enroll in early education. In 2004-2005, just 66% of kindergarteners had received formal early child care and education. Many families don’t know about programs available, but even more are prohibited by cost. Head Start provides subsidized care for children from the very poorest families. I want to use the Opportunity Fund to increase eligibility for subsidized preschool. I also want to provide new professional development opportunities for preschool teachers, particularly focusing on teaching literacy at an early age.
For my plan, I focused on best practices around the country. For example, the Gates Foundation's Early College High School Initiative was created after extensive research to increase high school retention and improve college readiness. You can read more about the initiative here. These schools provide a dual track of classes, both high school and college-level. Early College High Schools challenge students while providing them the support they need to succeed and give students an incentive to stay in school, as they can earn up to full two years, or an Associates' degree worth of credits while still in high school.
We already have one of these high schools right here in Philadelphia and it is showing promising results. Lamberton High School has partnered with Eastern University to create an Early College High School which offers students access to college-level classes and allows them to earn high school and college credits. Early College High Schools have varying relationships with their partnering high education institutions which could include matriculation agreements. My hope is that by making our comprehensive neighborhood high schools Early College High Schools, we will give all of our city’s high school students the chance to take at least some college credits while in high school.
We know that modernized classrooms provide new opportunities for children to learn, and help develop new web content is being created for schools all the time. Teachers also need the proper professional development to use new technology effectively, which I have included in my proposal. Schools must have adequate books and materials, and this new technology can go a long way toward ensuring that all schools do. The actual implementation of putting this new technology in each classroom would have to go through the school district, which has said that classroom modernization is a priority.
The reason behind establishing the Opportunity Foundation to oversee the implementation of the agenda is two-fold. First, I want experts, including actual providers of children and family services, educators, employers and workforce development professionals to be involved in the development of the specifics of the Opportunity Agenda and its implementation of the proposal so that it is responsive to the on-the-ground realities of these fields. Government will play the lead role in implementation, but the Foundation will provide key input, as well as additional accountability. Second, I wanted this fund to be run like other foundations, with the same fiduciary responsibilities of a foundation, and make sure that Philadelphians knew that this money would not be used for other purposes. Running the fund like other foundations will also help the city secure additional funding from other foundation sources, particularly from those based right here in Philadelphia, like Pew and Annenberg.
The lease of the airport to a qualified operator is part of a growing trend in major infrastructure projects. It would be similar to what Governor Rendell has proposed for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The city would still own the airport and provide certain oversight as owner and landlord, but the operation of the airport would be performed by a private company. This company would provide approximately $3 billion up front for the right to operate the airport for a specified period, likely longer than 30 years. Sydney Australia leased the operation of its airport to a private firm in 2002 for AU$5.5 billion (which at the time was around $3 billion). These types of transaction have happened at over 50 major airports throughout the world, and other infrastructure items are routinely leased throughout our country.
On the fiscal side, eliminating the BPT and replacing it with a simple net profits tax will end the unfairness of the Gross Receipts portion and simplify taxes on business. This will make Philadelphia more competitive and grow jobs. I believe that the city has the authority to make this change, but there are questions about whether this change would require a change in the Sterling Act or some court clarification in order to be accomplished.
I hope this answers some of your questions and look forward to reading more of your questions and responses.
Congressman+ Microsoft + Exploiting Phila education system= $$$$
Mr.Fattah,
I would love to hear more about your involvement with The School of The Future and if you know anything or involved with The Gates Foundation's Early College High School Initiative and why would someone like Bill Gates have so much interest in a city like Philly?
Junior Williams
juniorwililams007@earthlink.net
http://mycityscapephily.eponym.com/blog
Same question I put to David Wade
Will the new business tax be set at a rate that will raise essentially the same amount of revenue as the old tax, but structured more fairly? If the base of the tax is broadened to include industries now excluded, like banks, insurance and utility companies, the rate might not need be changed in any sharp way to bring in a similar amount. Otherwise, it would seem, a substantial portion of your airport revenue will be needed simply to replace the revenue of the reduced business tax. Or do you believe, along with many of the BPT's critics, that sharply cutting the tax will automatically produce replacement revenues due to growth?
From the plan
He wants to keep it revenue neutral and talks about convening an expert panel to carefully craft the rate and base of the new charge.
Stan, are there any figures you can point to directly that would support the idea that broadening the net profits tax to include currently exempted sectors would make up for the revenue lost from eliminating the Gross Receipts Tax? Otherwise, this would mean increasing the % of the Net Profits Tax in order to keep the proposal revenue neutral.
I support Michael Nutter for Mayor
Where does that quote come from?
That's the sense of what I thought Fattah was proposing but I haven't seen it in writing anywhere.
I found the quote
This is encouraging. No, I don't have any specific figures, but these are some of the most profitable sectors in the economy. It's outrageous that they get special treatment. (Stock brokers are in there too.) They're not all exempted completely, but they do get special treatment that cuts their liability tremendously. I'm trying to get figures, but I don't know if they're available from the state. I'll post them if I get them.
The Congressman Seems to Have Omitted One Reason for the POC
On the advice of Ray Murphy, I finally sidled up to the Congressman and put to him a few of the questions I've had for him. Last night at the PFC fundraiser, the Congressman was gracious enough to make an appearance and allow me the opportunity to ask him a question.
I asked him why does he want to establish an entirely new extra-governmental organization to provide services that our city government should be tasked with providing.
He explained that the POC would allow involvement of stakeholders in the private sector. However, he also explained that he wants to create the commission to avoid his plan being bogged down down in the city's bureaucracy.
I would say that it is mighty convenient that the Congressman has omitted from all of his plans his personal belief that Philadelphia's city government is broken. I suppose it would beg the question of why he has demonstrated no interest in fixing city government.
At this point, one of the Congressman's handlers realized that I am not the type of person with whom the Congressman should be associating and whisked him off before I was able to ask him my follow up question -
Rather than create an entirely new level of bureaucracy, why not demand city workers actually do their jobs?
Rather than fix what's broken, Fattah would rather have all the obstinate types in City Hall just continue collecting their patronage checks rather than ask them to actually do their job.
Do we really need another non-profit to address the issue of poverty?!?! How much money is going to be wasted in overhead - renting new offices, buying new computers and office equipment, etc, etc? What is needed is a leader who is willing to bring focus and coordination to the many EXISTING government programs and private sector non-profits.
His answer to me suggests that the Congressman is not interested in being that leader.
And peeps already know who I think is that leader - Mike Nutter.
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Phillyville
Both
I do need to hear from Fattah more about how he is going to make changes in City Hall.
But, it strikes me that if he thinks this is important, and needs to be done right away, then I can buy this. Changing what goes on in parts of the Government will not come quickly, no matter who is the Mayor. Bureaucracies in general are hard to take on. But in a world where a lot of things are governed by negotiated contracts, its not like Fattah (or Nutter) can just wave a magic wand. It will be a full on 8 year long process.
As an example: Street did
As an example: Street did something that you should really appreciate. He set out to reorganize and streamline the City's three housing agencies. Doing so was a big deal, and involved layoffs, and chopping down the power of John Dougherty. So, this was no easy task. But given the smaller and smaller amount of federal block grants, it made sense to do it.
How long did that plan take to implement? Answer: Still not really done.
does anyone read anymore?
I mean it may not address all of Ruby's concerns, but the second policy paper Fattah rolled out was on transparency and openness in government and contains all kinds of gems including public funding of elections, reform the contracting process, strengthening the ethics board, putting all most all public documents online and more. When I read it, 3 weeks ago, I thought it was pretty impressive and comprehensive.
Read it yourself here.
when I get myself an exploratory committee...
maybe I'll have them read all the stuff Fattah's exploratory committee has flooded me with...
;)
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Phillyville
Actions Speak Louder than Words
If Fattah was really interested in ethics in Philadelphia city government then why has he tried to get the campaign financing legislation overturned in court? Why did he decline to stand up for campaign finance limits when Kenny tried to gut them? Why is he using his exploratory committee money for his campaign?
I'll admit, his policy papers usually make for good reading, but if he can’t at least be consistent through his actions how much is his word really worth? These are the kinds of tough questions the future mayor will have to answer.
Risky Airport Scheme vs Capital Investment Needs?
A lot of plane flights were cancelled this week. Although I can't find an exact report in connection with the Jet Blue $30MM refund to passengers, National Public Radio had a report yesterday evening that indicated that airports across the country are experiencing tremendous capacity strains when there is inclement weather and that these strains are only expected to grow in the future. Basically, airlines have not been expanding gate capacity fast enough across the country.
In fact, since Philadelphia has one of the fastest growing airports, it would probably behoove government officials to fund additional capacity expansion. This report suggests about $30MM a year is needed for capacity expansion in PA and that's excluding PHL and Pittsburgh! The capital investment budget for 2006-2007 for PHL alone is $260MM.
Any comments Congressman on how you can balance airport capital investments with your plan? Also I'd like to know how much the airport currently makes in revenue and how much it posts each year in net income to understand how it could be worth $2-3 billion to anyone.
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Supporting Michael Nutter for Mayor.
Good catch. I didn't think
Good catch.
I didn't think how expansion and growth would factor into a lease agreement.