Troy Graham @troyjgraham
Council plans to pass the city’s budget on Thursday and begin the summer recess on time, putting the onus on state lawmakers to approve a cigarette tax that would help the School District of Philadelphia avoid draconian cuts.
Council President Darrell L. Clarke said Tuesday that he was “an eternal optimist,” and hoped the state would approve the tax, which would generate $46 million in the next fiscal year. Coupled with improved tax collections and other measures, Clarke said, the city would provide more than $74 million for the schools, “far exceeding” the school district’s request for $60 million.
The $2-a-pack cigarette tax, however, faces an uphill battle to win approval in Harrisburg. Council approved the tax unanimously, but needs state permission to enact it.
“From our perspective, we have done our part,” Clarke said.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
The special investigative committee Council formed last week to explore issues surrounding the fatal building collapse at 22nd and Market Streets plans to hold its first meeting on Wednesday.
The committee also has announced dates for four other hearings to be held through the summer recess.
The committee, chaired by Majority Leader Curtis Jones Jr., plans to being its work by asking questions about standards for demolition work on public sector versus private sector jobs.
Council President Darrell L. Clarke said he anticipated the committee would produce a report and any corrective legislation necessary. It's unclear who might be called to testify Wednesday, but Jones previously said he had hoped officials from the Department of Licenses and Inspections would be available.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
For the second year in a row, state legislators have proposed using revenue from casino gaming to solve a School District of Philadelphia funding crisis.
State Rep. Michael H. O’Brien (D., Philadelphia) said his bill would redirect $86.4 million in tax revenue from gaming to the schools without costing the state any money. This “revenue neutral” approach, he said, was the only way to find more money for the schools, given the “atmosphere” in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Last year, state Rep. Rosita Youngblood (D., Philadelphia) led the charge to redirect casino revenue, which goes to every county except Philadelphia for property tax reductions. In Philadelphia, the money is applied toward wage tax cuts.
Last year, the Nutter administration opposed the move because doing so would have opened a hole in the city’s budget that would have to be filled with wage tax increases or service cuts. The mayor also has been pushing for more wage tax cuts, seeking a commitment from Council to slash the tax in each of the next five years.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
Council passed a raft of budget bills Thursday, including one that sets the property tax rate under Mayor Nutter’s Actual Value Initiative and one that would create a $2-a-pack cigarette tax for the benefit of the struggling school district.
The property tax bill, approved by an 11-5 vote with Councilwoman Marian Tasco absent, sets the tax rate at 1.34 percent of assessed value and allows for a $30,000 homestead exemption for homeowners. That means the owner of a home worth $100,000 would pay taxes on $70,000 and owe $938.
Voting against the bill were Democratic Council members Mark Squilla, Kenyatta Johnson and Bill Green and Republicans Brian J. O’Neill and David Oh. Squilla and Johnson’s districts, which include growing neighborhoods bordering Center City, are facing some of the biggest property tax hikes under AVI.
Squilla’s bill to allow people appealing their assessments to pay last year’s taxes until their appeals are settled also passed. Johnson amended his bill to defer large tax increase for eligible low income homeowners. That legislation is expected to pass next week.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
Council plans on Wednesday to hold its first hearing into demolitions and other issues surrounding last week’s fatal building collapse.
Majority Leader Curtis Jones Jr., who is chairing the newly-created committee, said he anticipates calling officials from the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Council announced the new investigative committee in the wake of the collapse at 22nd and Market Streets, where an unsupported wall fell on an adjacent Salvation Army thrift store, killing six and injuring 13.
The operator of an excavator at the demolition site, Sean Benschop, has been charged with six counts of involuntary manslaughter. A toxicology report found marijuana in his system.
The L&I inspector who had responsibility for overseeing the demolitions was found dead Wednesday night in an apparent suicide.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
City Council gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would cap the 10-year tax abatement on new residential construction at $500,000 of value. The cap would go into effect in July 2015.
The committee took a rare roll call vote on the divisive issue, and the bill passed by a 9-7 count, with Councilwoman Marian Tasco absent. The bill, sponsored by Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr., could face final approval on June 20.
During testimony on the bill, Goode and Symphony House developer Carl Dranoff had several testy exchanges on the merits of the current tax abatement, which does not have a cap.
The abatement has been credited with sparking a building boom - mostly in Center City and surrounding neighborhoods - but also has been derided as an unnecessary tax credit to rich homeowners.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
Council President Darrell L. Clarke said Council members would not vote Wednesday to move a bill increasing the liquor-by-the-drink tax, raising money that would be put toward closing the school district's budget gap, but he refused to declare the proposal dead.
He reiterated several times that the liquor tax and a proposal to create a cigarete tax for the schools' benefit both need state approval. He told reporters that, if that approval came, Council might look differently at the liquor tax.
"It doesn’t matter what we do in here," Clark said. "If they don’t do what they need to do in Harrisburg, we can’t put money on the table for the schools at the level we would like."
He later told an audience full of parents and schools supporters that "there might be some contingency language" added to the bill later.
Bob Warner
City controller Alan Butkovitz has completed the first independent review of the huge number of provisional paper ballots cast in last November’s general election, and it confirms the post-election analysis by city election officials: Voters themselves are largely to blame for most of the situations when they showed up at the polls last November and their names couldn’t be found in the city’s poll books.
In roughly one-third of the 27,306 situations where voters had to fill out provisional ballots, a total of 9,078 cases, the voters couldn’t find their names among registered voters at the polling place because they went to the wrong polling place. A sampling suggested that most of them were nowhere near the address where they were registered, according to the controller’s report, released Tuesday.
In 7,637 more cases – about 28 percent of the total – the would-be voters had to fill out provisional ballots because they weren’t registered to vote at all. (Once election officials figured that out, from voter information on the envelope outside the ballot, the votes weren’t counted.)
Another big chunk of the provisional ballots remains a mystery – some 4,827 people were forced to fill out paper ballots, not allowed to use voting machines, because of a still-unexplained glitch in the printing of so-called supplemental polling books. These books are supposed to include the names of voters who registered for the first time or changed their registrations relatively close to the registration deadline, 30 days ahead of the election – too late to make the deadline for the regular polling books.
Troy Graham @troyjgraham
Mayor Nutter on Monday warned again of the School District of Philadelphia’s “looming crisis” of lay-offs and other cost-cutting measures, and called on “responsible adults” to come to the rescue of the city’s school children.
Specifically, the mayor is asking City Council to pass bills that would create a cigarette tax and increase the liquor-by-the-drink tax, both part of his plan to raise $95 million toward the $304 million deficit in the school district’s budget. He’s also calling on state legislators to give the necessary approval for those taxes.
“The stakes are very, very high,” Nutter said, during a news conference outside his City Hall office. “This is a very serious moment of crisis.”
On Friday, the district announced that lay-off notices would be sent to nearly 3,800 employees, including teachers, assistant principals, guidance counselors and support staff. Nutter said those lay-offs would not only devastate Philadelphia but the surrounding economy for “the next decade or two.”
Bob Warner
City Council is setting up its own investigation of the building collapse that killed six people last week at 22nd and Market streets.
Council President Darrell Clarke scheduled a noon press conference Monday to announce the probe, to be conducted by a “special investigative committee.”
The panel “will be tasked with a broad review of city procedures and regulations in the areas of licenses and permits, community development, construction and demolition, building maintenance and safety, and certification of workers,” according to Clarke’s press release.
The accident is already under investigation by the Nutter administration, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Philadelphia district attorney's office and private attorneys lining up lawsuits against the parties involved.
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