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Friday, July 31, 2009

David L. Cohen Calls Doomsday Budget "Unthinkable"

Comcast executive David L. Cohen, who serves as board chairman for the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, called Mayor Nutter's doomsday budget plan "unthinkable" today after an early morning pow-wow between Nutter and the city's business leaders.

"I think this is almost unthinkable what the impact would be on the business community. The business community, we’re all about generating jobs and growing the economy and growing the tax base. And who wants to move to a city with no recreation infrastructure and no free library system, with twice a month trash collection," Cohen said.

Cohen, who also served as chief of staff to Gov. Rendell during his time as mayor, said that he and other business leaders would be reaching out to legislators in Harrisburg to urge them to approve Nutter's two budget requests.

"No one has said to me that the city’s ask is unreasonable, that it’s ridiculous, that it’s not founded in public policy," Cohen said. "Nobody in Harrisburg wants to see the city of Philadelphia lay off 3,000 people, lose a thousand police officers, 200 firefighters."

Nutter wants state lawmakers to approve a temporary 1-cent increase to the city sales tax and changes to how the city pays into the pension fund. Without those approvals, the city will have a $700 million hole to fill over the next five years.

Yesterday, Nutter held a rally in City Hall to push Harrisburg for action, saying that without their help, the city would be forced to implement a contingency budget, which would lay off up to 3,000 workers, shut down libraries and recreation centers and reduce trash pick-up to twice a month.
Posted by Catherine Lucey @ 9:57 AM  Permalink | 4 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:45 AM, 07/31/2009
    how about cracking down on L&I which are shutting down business for not having the exact type of illuminated exit signs. Paying their agents time and a half to raid businesses during night time hours? How about letting people sell their wares on the street, WHO HAVE A LICENSE to do so, and stop wasting tax payers money and go fight crime? How about stop "following orders" and use some common sense?
    — bingo
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:56 AM, 07/31/2009
    It's nice of Cohen to carry water for this administration, but the truth is that Nutter didn't accomplish what Cohen did during Rendell's first term. Cohen cut city costs, sold city property that the city had no use for, and sold $80 of property tax lien debt to private collection agencies to put the budget in the black. Nutter could have followed the same playbook -- collected on the $425 million in overdue property taxes owed for more than one year, sold the forfeit bail owed by no shows of $1 billion to a private collector and gotten out of the bail bond business, Nutter could have sold off unusable, under used city property, like the Dell, right-sized city government relocating to cheaper newer buildings and selling off high value CC locations. There was a lot of time squandered these first two years. Nutter acted like he was the mayor of a boom town, only to find that the recession is real. Harrisburg is not "ideologically opposed" to the sales tax hike, it is not going to do tax hikes during a recession. I doubt Cohen if he was authorized would do pension refi/payment delay when there is uncollected revenue and AVI to be accomplished first.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:57 AM, 07/31/2009
    It's irresponsible of the head of the Chamber of Commerce to call for a job-killing sales tax hike that puts Philly higher than the region during good times, much less during a recession. Cohen has to check his politics and revisit his Econ.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:05 AM, 07/31/2009
    But Cohen also helped prepare a similar doomsday budget with police and fire cuts. Got peoples attention but never materialized but city employees including Mayor and Council staff all got raises. Cohen is more concerned about his Comcast shareholders than he is about the taxpayers; he is more concerned about any threat to the 10 year tax abatement on the Concast property and the tax deals the occupants got for renting space in an enterprise zone - can you imagine that- at 17th and Arch.
    — nebulus


4 comments
About The Philly Clout Team
PhillyClout
Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.
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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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Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002 and has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. After covering the 2007 mayoral election, she moved over to the City Hall bureau where she has been reporting on the Nutter administration.
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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.
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Catherine Lucey
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Chris Brennan
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