Menu-labeling bill served to Council

Shocked by the growing number of fat children in Philadelphia, City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown yesterday introduced a menu-labeling bill that would require chain restaurants to list fat, carbs, calorie and sodium content of food offerings.

The idea is that knowledge will equal power for kids and, perhaps more importantly, parents.

"Menu labeling will help consumers make informed choices and would encourage restaurants to offer more nutritious choices," she told her colleagues.

Coming on the heels of new laws banning smoking in restaurants and bars and a ban on trans fat, City Council is taking on a more activist role in defense of the public's health.

But Brown's bill is aimed at a small part of the city's restaurant industry - only chains that have 10 or more locations, in or out of the city, and do business under the same name. It would also apply to convenience stores, delis, bakeries and the like but not to the city's many hundreds of non-chain restaurants.

Asked about the fairness of that approach, Brown said she's been working on the legislation for a year. "We have to start someplace," she said.

The bill offers chain restaurants a number of ways to post the basic nutritional information on its offerings: It can be on the menu or on a menu board.

Brown's bill also offers an exception for a chain restaurant's specials that are on the menu for less than 30 days. No nutritional information is required for them.

Brown defended the exception, noting, "There are many who would argue that specials are not a major part of consumers' choices."

So far, she says, she's heard general criticism from the chains, complaining about "another government mandate" imposed on business.

Also yesterday, Council overrode Mayor Street's veto of two bills that would provide $30 million in capital funding to be divided evenly among the police, fire and recreation departments.

Councilwoman Marian Tasco, sponsor of the two bills, said later that Street "probably would not" spend the funds as earmarked in her bills, preferring legislation pushed through Council by Councilman Darrell Clarke, who targeted about $10 million for the police and fire departments. "The money will be there and we'll just have to deal with another administration," she said.

Council also approved its seventh ballot question for the May primary ballot. This one, sponsored by Council members Jannie Blackwell and Brian O'Neill, focuses on the Board of Revision of Taxes and its efforts to set up a new full valuation or 100 percent assessment system for valuing real estate.

The question asks voters whether they want to urge the BRT to stop real estate tax increases through its use of full valuation.

Among the other ballot questions are a proposal to end the city charter requirement that an elected city official must resign before running for another office, a question asking voters if they want to create a Youth Commission and a question about pulling troops out of Iraq. *