Plan C is a bluff. There, I said it.
More and more, I find myself thinking that Nutter doesn't actually believe doomsday is almost upon us – with the city minutes away from closing libraries, recreation centers and the judicial system. He is just playing an elaborate game of charades. Yesterday, when he said at a meeting that many of the police officers who would get laid off were patrol officers – typically they’re assigned to high crime neighborhoods, it made me wonder if this scare-mongering is going a little far.
Don't get me wrong. The city definitely needs help from Harrisburg. If Philadelphia doesn't get permission to increase our sales tax and defer pension payments, we'll need more revenue or government won't be able to function properly. Still, the details of Plan C seem less like a plan and more like a (rather clumsy) political ruse to put pressure on state lawmakers.
After all, some of the claims being made by Nutter and his staff just don't make sense. Funding for the First Judicial District would be completely eliminated for four years. What the heck would happen to people arrested by the police? How would they be processed? When pressed, officials don't have any real answers to these questions. That reveals a lack of planning for a scenario that is supposed to be imminent.
The plan also seems to be just about cuts without any alternatives for raising revenue. For example, trash pick up would be reduced to every other week. This could be avoided by instituting a sanitation fee. This would take some time to set up, but unlike taxes, fees can be put in place during the middle of the year. Charging for this service could generate between $80 and $100 million in revenue. It might not be a popular move, but it would be enough to avoid turning our entire city into a dumpster.
Here is another question: Why is Nutter assuming that the city won't have any new streams of revenue for five years? City Council may have rejected a property-tax increase this year, but they might be singing a different tune after living through a year without libraries or recreation centers. If Harrisburg does fail to approve the enabling legislation, certainly other measures can be taken for the next fiscal year. The city could take some tide-me-over measures, rather than the permeant, scary-sounding ones in Plan C.
I'm not the only one who sees flaws. Today, City Controller Alan Butkovitz released a letter questioning the viability of Plan C. In addition to pointing out the absurdity of shutting down the court system, he also questions some of the basic assumptions in the plan. For example, the revised budget does not include the savings in fringe benefits generated by laying off 3,000 employees. That just doesn't make sense. You can read the entire Butkovitz letter over at Philly Clout.
So, if Plan C is a farce, does that mean we have nothing to worry about? Hardly. The city really does need new sources of revenue to preserve essential services. And, if Harrisburg doesn't approve the necessary legislation, Mayor Nutter will be forced to implement the plan he has been warning about for months or look completely foolish. In some ways, the worst thing about Plan C is that it's not actually a plan. That means the city is totally unprepared if Harrisburg fails to approve fiscal relief. And that should scare Philadelphians most of all.
Ben a fee for trash pick-up is a tax. That is a basic service that should be covered by our taxes. "For example, trash pick up would be reduced to every other week. This could be avoided by instituting a sanitation fee. This would take some time to set up, but unlike taxes, fees can be put in place during the middle of the year. Charging for this service could generate between $80 and $100 million in revenue. It might not be a popular move, but it would be enough to avoid turning our entire city into a dumpster."— s.aber- Uh...there are lots of cities and towns where trash pick-up is not covered by taxes. The residents have to pay for this service. Off the top of my head, I know that Wilmington is one city in our area where residents have to pay for trash pick-up.— nitzohan
- Ben's not recommending this, just reporting, and it's good reporting. On the merits, a trash fee would simply replace money that we're not getting from another source, namely the sales tax. That's also estimated to bring in about $100 million. So although the payers would be somewhat different, the total tax burden on the City wouldn't necessarily be higher.— Stan Shapiro
- Ben, I've been saying for some time that Michael "Chicken Little" Nutter has no Plan C. Why do you think that they can't name what fire stations will close, what health centers will close, etc. Do you really think this city can survive without 1,000 police officers? But listen to Nutter, "The sky is falling, the sky is falling." He has no plan other than his bluster.— Smokey
- Nice piece Ben. You give a slight mention to the rejected property tax increase by City Council. I would love to see a piece that looks at the effect of that increase versus a land-value tax, for example. i think about how i pay $600 annually in city property taxes for my home, while a colleague of mine has been holding a prime piece of real estate vacant for over 10 years, for an astonishingly low $450 annual tax liability. i would be interested to see if the City could simultaneously decrease vacancy and increase revenues, while stabilizing real estate taxes for a majority of home-owners.— briankel48
- Smokey - it's not a bluff - there's no money.— Philly Phorever
- Nice! I was always wondering why there are new hires and promotions, expanded new City Offices ie. Office of Sustainability, etc and renovations going on in the MSB and 1515 Arch. The items on Plan C seem odd, all of Planning Commission and Commerce is no longer, then it has employees, like others have said the firestations no mention? And Butkovitz does well in questioning the courts and the lay offs of the patrols, then there is budgeted money for more patrol cars? If you look at it there is increases in Departments when supposedly there is a hiring freeze, hell they are hiring and promoting now! ANd no real collections on taxes...anyway, there were so many other options than to defer it to the state. Too bad.— uandwhosearmy
- Patrol officers would be laid off because they usually have the least seniority. It wouldn't necessarily cut back on the number of patrol officers as more senior officers currently assigned to special forces would be slotted into those patrol positions.— Valley Twin
- Waxman that the Plan C budget contains poison pill fatal flaws that make it hard for PICA to approve. It's a feint. So did Council and the City Controller approve it, Council without hearings that could be pointing these troubling details out to the press? It's a fake-left, go right. Harrisburg would do well to call Philly on these games that waste time and scare people for no good reason. Is it possible that we don't need a sales tax hike at all? Of course. We can implement AVI and collect overdue property taxes, in addition to all the smart points Waxman makes above. Can't we have smart government first, instead of partisan games and fake budgets, one after another? The games pass for smart in Philly, but it's actually pretty stupid. They're sinking their cred by the second.— CleanupPhilly
- People have been saying all along, "why cut the most critical services first that everyone uses?" Why can't we cut the services used least, that are least the responsibility of local government, that are duplicated at the state and federal level? Why are we not doing the basics right? Collect overdue property taxes, the forfeit bail owed the city, put city controlled and owned property back into the paying property tax base? Why is the RDA the top city property tax delinquent, after the city itself? The press hasn't really gone after answers entirely yet, and this pulled punch enables bad government.— CleanupPhilly
- We don't know what the real Plan C says. It's not due until 9/25 thanks to PICA punting. The Plan C that the City Controller says can't legally be implemented is a poison pill to buy time. PICA is running the city because they just took Plan B and penciled in some changes. Nutter and Council have to stop being children and start being leaders. What do they truly plan to cut? They have to cut something but not the most critical services first.— CleanupPhilly
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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