You don't have to be hanging out on a city basketball court to hear trash talk these days. People are doing it everywhere, thanks to Mayor Nutter's plan to impose a $300 levy on trash collection.
What the mayor wants to do is similar to what the airlines are doing by charging passengers to check their luggage. Remember the good old days when bags were included in the price of your ticket?
No one likes paying to check bags, and Nutter's idea is no different. The proposal immediately attracted critics like a trash dump attracts flies: It's regressive, hurts the poor, will be hard to implement, people said.
All that may be true, but Nutter's plan has one big thing going for it: There isn't much choice. The city has to balance its budget, and a slash-and-burn strategy of cutting everything in sight won't get us there and will be just as unpopular.
That's not to say the fee can't be reduced, relabeled and perhaps imposed as a temporary surcharge until the economic clouds pass. But the city needs money and is limited in its options to raise it.
How we got here: Irrational tax-cut exuberance
In 1996, Philadelphia began a tax-reduction policy that continued for 15 years, something no other city in the nation can boast. It continued under three mayors, survived the ebbs and flows of the economy and 9/11. As many cities hiked taxes, we were steadfast in reducing ours. Only the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression put a halt to that Ripken-like streak last year.
All things being equal (which they never are), those tax reductions add up to well over $1 billion in potential revenue.
In 2004, then-Councilman Nutter advocated fiercely for making even steeper cuts that would have taken another $330 million out of the city's coffers. With the "irrational exuberance" of tax reduction, there was little consideration given to the impact on city services.
Mayor Street thought the Nutter proposals were too drastic and vetoed them. "This is not an easy decision, and certainly not a popular one," Street told City Council, "but I lived through the dark days of our fiscal crisis" - in the early '90s - "and do not want to squander what we have achieved."
While Nutter may resent ex-Mayor Street's criticism of his soda and trash levies, he should actually be thanking Street for his 2004 veto. Had Councilman Nutter had his way, Mayor Nutter would be in an even deeper hole now. Irony of ironies, Nutter is now fighting for city services while Street is critical of his revenue plans.
Where we need to go: A better balance
Over just the past few years, the Streets Department has eliminated mechanical leaf collections, curbside bulk and tire pickups, residential street cleaning, curbside Christmas tree collection and two of its five drop-off centers. The sanitation division has gone from 2,523 employees in 1975 to 1,228 now, a 50 percent reduction.
The same story can be told of many other city departments.
There has to be a balance between tax reduction and the need to preserve essential services. There is no science to determine what that balance should be or how to arrive at it. Nor can we predict external events that may necessitate an adjustment.
The current recession is one such event, and the trash levy is one such adjustment. If we hadn't boxed ourselves in by failing to fix our broken assessment system, a modest increase in the city's relatively low real-estate tax would be the way to go. The trash fee is simply an imperfect way to achieve the same end.
Municipalities charging separately for trash pickup isn't new. It started four decades ago in Seattle and is now common in this area, though many of our neighbors charge less than Nutter is asking.
A sample: Abington ($230), Lansdowne ($224), Haverford ($135), Lower Merion ($242), Upper Darby ($130). And in some spots, trash is picked up twice a week.
Of course, reducing the proposed levy will require the mayor and Council to make up the shortfall elsewhere. But that's not such a bad thing. There is a lot of room to take actions that won't cause doomsday but may eliminate what's no longer necessary. The Nutter budget proposal is just the opening gambit, the beginning of a long negotiating dance with City Council.
Phil Goldsmith writes "The Gold Standard" column for It's Our Money. He was city managing director from 2003-2005.
"Municipalities charging separately for trash pickup isn't new". No cr@p, but those places don't also charge a RIDICULOUS 4% wage tax either. & in most cases have much better schools, lower crime and over all better quality of life. Also as you mention in some cases they have the luxury of twice a week collections. So you cant apples2apples Lower Merion & Abington w/ Philadelphia. While I agree further cuts aren't going to be easy, they aren't impossible either.— Kennedy- How can anyone support increasing taxes (or fees, if you so prefer) just so the culture of ineptitude, entitlement, and corruption can continue in City government??? Clean up your own act, and once you can prove that ESSENTIAL personnel would need to be cut - then I'll agree to higher taxes. But if that money goes to ONE patronage employee, you haven't done your job.— citylumberjack
- why are there3 men on a recycling truck when every other trash service uses 1?? most trash service cost about 190 to 200 from profit making companies who pay tax and license fees on there trucks?????— jr23
- It just doesn't make sense when one household puts out a bag of trash and one bin of recycling every other week and their nieghbors put out 3-5 trash bags and 2 recycling bins each week. Should that first house be punished for producing less waste, by charging the same city fees?— katie
MONEY AND JUSTICE DON'T MIX
WILL THE NEW COUNCIL GIVE YOU A SAY?
Tips? Comments? Questions?
Contact:
Doron Taussig:
215-854-5307
doron.taussig@gmail.com
@dorontaussig
Holly Otterbein:
215-854-5809
hm.otterbein@gmail.com
@hollyotterbein
Juliana Reyes:
215-854-5855
juliana.f.reyes@gmail.com
@juliana_f_reyes
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