Should city be on GOP pork list?

Terry Gillen, head of the city's Redevelopment Authority and point-person on casino development, said the city didn't want to miss any federal funding opportunities offered by the incoming Obama administration. So with plans for the redevelopment of Market Street East around a new Foxwoods Casino at The Gallery still in flux, the city listed $100 million in federal aid for redevelopment of Market East on its wish-list of possible funding priorities for Obama's expected Main Street stimulus package.

The list was assembled by the U.S. Conference of Mayors to show Obama the needs of different cities. "It's kind of like changing the tire on the car while the car is moving," Gillen said last month. "We just want to make sure the opportunity for funding doesn't go away just because the project's not ready to be defined."

Now that request has become a national symbol of pork for Congressional Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) complained about Philly's request for $100 million for "land to develop a casino," lumping it in with projects like a $1.5 million water slide for Miami, $6 million in snow-making equipment at a Minnesota ski resort, and talk of aid for the proposed "Mob Museum" in Las Vegas.

All of a sudden Philly was being help up on CNBC ("Stimulus package stuffed with pork!)"and in the The Washington Post as an example of possible pork in the plan.  Opponents of the Foxwoods move, including Casino Free Philadelphia and neighborhood activists in Chinatown, have been gleefully spreading the news that Philadelphia's casino plan is the subject of national "ridicule."

Has Mayor Nutter and the city gotten a bum rap? The money is not being requested to redevelop land so that Foxwoods can build. The proposed relocation of Foxwoods to The Gallery would be an anchor that city leaders hope would make the case for redeveloping the whole corridor. Money going to public transit and other improvements nearby.  The city has proposed relocating police and fire stations to the area, at a cost of $25 million, specifically to deal with customers and new activity from Foxwoods.

McConnell's office seemed to back off a bit on Wednesday, saying the senator's whole point was that any Main Street stimulus package will have to be vetted to make sure projects are worthy.  That could include Philly's proposal, said McConnell's spokesman, Don Stewart. "Some of these programs on their face seem horrible, but by reviewing them we can see if they're meritorious or not," Stewart said. "The broader point here is that we ought to take a deep breath and see where this money is being spent." Obama has assured GOP leaders that there will be a full review and the package won't be rushed, Stewart said.

Nutter's communications director, Trish Enright, offered McConnell a tour of Market East and beyond. "We'd be happy to have Sen. McConnell visit us here in Philadelphia," Enright said, "and we'll show him what cities can do with stimulus money." Click here for Philly.com's politics page.