Council Candidate Calls For City To Be 'Less Weird'
Jeff Hornstein, one of the four men seeking to replace City Councilman Frank DiCicco in the 1st District, decided to seek attention for his campaign today by cracking wise on the City of Brotherly Love. Hornstein issued a news release touting his plan to "Make Philly less weird" when it comes to taxes.
Council Candidate Calls For City To Be 'Less Weird'
Chris Brennan
Jeff Hornstein, one of the four Democrats seeking to replace City Councilman Frank DiCicco in the 1st District, decided to draw attention to his campaign today by cracking wise on the City of Brotherly Love. Hornstein issued a news release touting his plan to "Make Philly less weird" when it comes to taxes.
The plan, dubbed "Investing in Philadelphia," is aimed at the city's tax structure, pension problems and use of vacant land. You can read the plan here.
We asked Hornstein, Brooklyn-born and raised in Matawan, NJ, about the political viability of calling Philly weird. He said we shouldn't get "hung up on the word" and said there are many weird aspects of Philadelphia -- the guy can seriously talk local theater -- that the city does and should embrace.
If you're one of those Nobody-talks-trash-about-Philly-except-us types, take it easy on Hornstein next time you run into him. He's healing a ruptured tendon in his knee after taking a tumble off a South Philly stoop while campaigning.
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Jeff Hornstein, he's the union guy who thinks that real estate will save the economy, right? Exactly what we don't need in City Council.— BarryG- Interesting. Some large portion of what he preaches sounds great ... until you realize that he's trying to have more programs while also lowering taxes. Without naming specific places that the budget will be CUT, you can't get more blood from the City budget stone.— citylumberjack
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- Actually City Lumberjack, I am talking about shifting the tax burden off of things that can move, like wages, profits, and residential homeowners, to things that cannot, like land and receipts (exempting small business of course). I, unlike many liberals, also have a way to pay for things, by using our municipal employee pension funds to create a Philadelphia Initiative Fund, modeled after CalPERS California Initiative. Let's use our pension funds to create Philly-based jobs.
And BarryG, I don't think RE will save the economy. I wrote a history of the industry, I will happily send you a copy.— jhornstein - a candidate that actually responds to comments - he is one step of the others thus far- and now has me listening— gogglespaisano
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- I agree goggles...I'm listening now too...— way2go
Jeff's got character. City council needs someone who thinks outside the box. (Council and government is a Circus SideShow or Ripely Believe it or NOT)!!!- IN fact, he has my ear now as well - I do appreciate your reply Mr. Hornstein. That said, if you remove the taxes from residential homeowners ... but tax 'land', isn't that the same thing? I'm not necessarily questioning your motives, but your methods remain suspect. I definitely appreciate your involvement in the debate - too many Philly pols simply assume they can dictate to the voters (sense of extreme entitlement) - and hope that a more complete answer is available from you at some point. While I may disagree on the pension being invested thusly, you'd admittedly be the expert in that matter so I am very interested in your ideas there.— citylumberjack
- Use pension funds? In the most recent government report Philly will run out of pension money in 2015. Great idea.— STEPHEN1988
- By the way, CALPERS is filling for....bankruptcy!— STEPHEN1988
- I've never heard of Hornstein before this article, but just checked his site. His 5th "Achievable Policy Idea" discussing the impact of the Panama Canal widening, and how Philly could capture a portion of the coming east coast port renaissance, is dead on. When the canal is widened, it will be cheaper to bring container ships to the east coast than to drop on the west coast and ship via rail. Nobody outside of logistics nerds is talking about this, but there is serious potential.— atd
- Land is a much smaller component of your home than the building. Not taxing the building will reduce property taxes for at least 80% of homeowners, especially middle-class areas.I think this guy has what it takes, especially the land value taxation.
urbantools.org— Joshua911
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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