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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Nutter tells chamber job creation is his top priority

Mayor Nutter can still pack the house for an address to the business community.

However, it did seem to me that the 1,400 people at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown Tuesday weren’t spreading love as the business elite once did when he was a newly minted mayor.

Granted, few are in a celebratory mood following an awful economy in 2009 and as they face lots of uncertainty for 2010.

It was the 27th year a city mayor has given an address to the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. And there is no friendlier venue for the mayor to talk about his vision for the city and strategies to get there.

After all, the chamber publicly supported Nutter last year when he temporarily suspended wage- and business-tax cuts that had been whittling those deterrents to doing business here. It was the right thing for the chamber leadership to do, but that didn’t help its members struggling with the downturn.

Nutter once again committed to restoring those tax cuts, starting in 2012, if possible. Still, he acknowledged that it will be tough to do, and the crowd did not applaud his stated intention.

By my count, there were 12 times during the 30-minute speech that the assemblage applauded. Two were for references to the Phillies and the much-anticipated start of spring training.

Even the mayor seemed taken aback by delayed reaction to his announcing that business owners would be able to apply for licenses, pay taxes, and conduct other business with the city online in June. What an enormous accomplishment for a paper-laden, queue-fixated city bureaucracy. He actually had to wait for clapping that should have thundered.

Otherwise, the crowd seemed to listen attentively as Nutter listed ways the city can help create jobs, including retaining and attracting businesses and investing in the higher-education, hospitality and medical sectors.

The words tough, harder and struggling kept recurring in Nutter’s speech. They describe today’s reality, even as Nutter was laying out his vision for Philadelphia as “a city of prosperity.”

It’s understandable that the suits in attendance were not enthusiastic about the message. But it’s a good sign they’re still listening even as economic uncertainty keeps them from creating jobs.
Posted by Mike Armstrong @ 2:05 AM  Permalink | File Under: Politics, Taxes | 5 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:34 PM, 02/17/2010
    Where is Mr Thomas Morr from the GPCC mentioned in this article? He was brought in from the DC Chamber of Commerce to help foster job creation at the GPCC. I would like to have his job, collect a nice paycheck for doing nothing. Where do I sign up for a gig like that with no accountability for measurable results? The GPCC is a paper tiger and has been since the late Mr. Fred DiBona left there many years ago.
    — Jes44
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:03 PM, 02/17/2010
    The federal government has become so powerful and so visible that most businesses don't want to act until the feds take a step back from all their big tax plans for them.
    — Phillies2008WSChamps
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:01 AM, 02/18/2010
    What would you expect, in the way of reaction to Nutter's speech? He has been a real disappointment to most in the business community. A lot of it has nothing to do with him-- i.e. the economic situation across the country-but where he has an impact, I think he had dropped the ball and it shows. Mark my words--Come re-election time, most of these folks will keep their wallets shut.
    — pajamas
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:55 AM, 02/18/2010
    Nutter has nothing whatsoever to do with job creation. His raison d'etre, and that of any mayor or "official", is to get in the way of real job creation (as opposed wealth-sapping jobs such as those held by municipal minions, pencil pushers and meter maids) by instituting laws, statutes, fines, policies, referenda, edicts, dictates, and taxes that get in the way of creativity, commerce and entrepreneurship. He can only rob Peter to pay Paul. What businessperson wants to create and produce and hire people when they, the producers, are being robbed to pay the moochers and freespenders? Entrepreneurs, come to Philadelphia and set up shop so we can hit you with the "Philadelphia Business Tax!" That brings them in. Now imagine how many entrepreneurs would set up shop if the law was that any business manufacturing at least 50% of a product within Philadelphia did not have to pay any city taxes. That would bring in manufacturers and create jobs and incomes, and ten thousand meter maids and the cretins who fine you for putting your trash out too early could actually find legitimate jobs and be productive for once in their lives.
    — Joshka
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:33 AM, 02/18/2010
    Thanks for the article ! Love the descriptive "applause" count. Granted we have been in a tough time, there are also many reasons to be optimistic. I do have faith in the Nutter administration in regards to the vision and the message to get our city rolling again. I would love to see some changes in the tax strucutre regarding "BPT" and "NPT" offering incentives for small business owners and self employed folks to stay working in the city as well as enticing others to hire.
    — thesomersteam


5 comments
About Mike Armstrong
Mike Armstrong, a business editor and writer for nearly two decades, is the Inquirer's business columnist and PhillyInc blog editor. Contact Mike via e-mail or at 215-854-2980
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