It's Our City is a project that uses TV, Radio and Web
to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Moderator Reports from Budget Workshop #3
Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 6:34 pm - by Matt Campbell. Filed under: Budget.
The 3rd of 4 budget workshops was held in South Philadelphia at St. Monica’s Catholic School on Feb 19. More than 400 people turned out to help in their chance to help shape the City of Philadelphia’s next budget. They have been asked to help reduce city spending and/or raise revenues to close a projected $200 million gap for the fiscal year that runs July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010.
Citizens worked in small groups of 20-25 along with 2 moderators. Later in this story you can see the reports submitted by the moderators.
How the groups worked
On the worksheets citizens used for this exercise, each possible action was assigned a point value, based on how much it would do - either by cutting costs or raising revenues - to close the gap.
Each group was challenged to approve a list of actions that added up to 100 points - equivalent to balancing the budget.
They did so, working with moderators from the Penn Project for Civic Engagement, by first sorting the actions into four buckets:
1) Low-hanging Fruit - Items that 75 percent of the group could swiftly agree should be done.
2) No Way, No Hows - Actions that a 75 percent majority agreed should NOT be done, no matter what.
3) Shared Pain - Actions that people originally wanted to avoid, but concluded should be done _ after discussion and by a 51 percent majority vote.
4) Gut Wrenchers - Actions that people really, really wanted to avoid, but were led to reconsider after early efforts to close the gap fell short. Approved after discussion by a 51 percent vote.
Group 1 - 79 points
Group 2 - 99 points
Group 3 - 20 points
Group 4 - 71 points
Group 5 - 28 points
Group 6- 68 points
Group 7 - 53 points
Group 8 - 34 points
Group 9 - 84 points
Group 10 - 70 points
Group 11 - 33 points
Group 12 - 14 points
Group 13 - 48 points
Group 14 - 81 points
Group M - 24 points
February 22nd, 2009 at 11:43 pm
First, bravo to Tom Ferrick for his candid and deft handling of the panel discussion. From one St. Richard’s parishoner to another: You go, Tom!
Second, congratulations to the Penn Project on Civic Engagement for such a thoughtful and organized program.
While the worksheet was somewhat tough to follow and often too sweeping in the recommendations offered for discussion and voting, the workshop leaders did their best to make every voice heard. (That was no mean feat in Group 5!)
My concern is that the proposed budgetary changes amount only to a Catch-22 of cutting services and/or raising taxes. These recommendations are less than visionary, less than creative, and less than I expected from our Mayor. What happened to changing the way business is done in Philadelphia? What happened to his focus on making Philadelphia smarter and safer? What happened to his promise to make Philadelphia an attractive place to live and work again? Instead, these recommendations allow for business as usual in Philadelphia . . . fat, protected government and citizens who seem to pay more every day for the privilege of being Philadelphians.
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:57 am
I’m going tonight to the forum in W. Philly. Thanks for the heads up about the worksheet. Is it published anywhere so I can get a brief look before tonight?