City Budget Report from Davis Lafferty 2/18/09; Mastery Charter School, Picket Campus

Group 3

Moderators: Joan Davis, Pete Lafferty

Total points: 93 toward the goal of 100

Group Description:

Our group was composed of 21 citizens: 14 women and seven men.  There were five African Americans, two Asian Americans and 14 Caucasians. Seven appeared to be younger than 40 years of age; 14 older than 40.

Our group, at first, wished to share their thoughts about the format, what was included within the choices, and what was left out. There was high energy and some were, at first, a bit excitable, and cut one another off to a limited degree. We handled questions and comments about the process in a fair, firm manner, and moved the group into the work of the night by dividing into four small groups of five to six citizens. After moving from the small groups to the large group, we noticed that the tone, while passionate, did smooth out to good sharing and comments/questions among the group. We made it through three of the buckets. Our city budget person was briefly mentioned but kept to the background, only clarifying when we (moderators) needed it done. Other city budget officials also came into the room and remained in the back listening and only sharing clarifying comments, which proved helpful to the group.

We didn’t note any completed dissenting work sheets.

Low-Hanging Fruit

Total points: 68

·        #20 Eagles: 4 pts

o       No discussion; unanimous

·        #16 Vehicle Fleet: 6 pts

o       Employees don’t deserve cars; high costs, not used during day-time hours; might be a car used simply to commute.

o       Citizens liked the use of Philly CarShare.

o       Employees should use their own cars and write off the costs on federal tax returns (like private-sector sales reps, for example).

o       Have carpool and share:  have a fleet on site so anyone needing a car gets one from the lot; no one has a reserved car, just a common fleet shared.

o       Which departments are affected? Would this impact DHS and their role?

o       City Council: Do they have a need for cars?

o       Vote: 19 of 21; 90%.

·        #25 Modification of Wage Tax:  56 pts

o       Return to 2004 levels of .5%; would generate $112M, 56 points. (Later on, a city official shared a fact about the city needing to give back $80m of previous revenue so the yield might only be $32m.)

o       Exemption: Family of four earning $35k or less would be exempt.

o       Question:  City population - changing in which direction? Is there a slight increase in city population recently?

o       Group felt strongly about increasing taxes to keep services.

o       Unanimous vote - 100%.

·        #17 Amusement: 2 pts

o       Ticket prices go up, yet people who are fans will go anyway.

o       Please have the city keep the free movie options (like in the parks, etc.) for those who can’t afford the increase.

o       Vote: 16 of 21 - 76%

No Ways, No Hows

Total points taken off the table: 17

·        #4 Fairmount Park: 2 pts

o       Impacts kids; increase crime level if dropped.

o       Vote: 20 of 21 - 95%

·        #14 Recreation: 5 pts

o       Citizens put both Fairmount Park and Recreation in the same category, possibly based on the recent voting cycle.  Later a city official clarified (just to one of the moderators) that it would take affect after this budget cycle.

o       People were passionate about this, if doing one, then the other was paired with it.

o       Keep kids off streets; Fairmount Park has already had an employee reduction in recent years.

o       Vote: 21 of 21 - 100%

·        #6 Free Library: 3 pts

o       Kids benefit.

o       Helps those looking for jobs.

o       Vote: 18 of 21 - 86%

·        #13 Public Health: 7 pts

o       Needs own commissioner: job is too big to have this person do other things/duties.

o       Covers those without health insurance.

o       Loss of jobs was a concern.

o       Variety of services is important and shouldn’t be cut. For example: abatement, rat control.

o       Vote: 21 of 21 - 100%

Shared Pain

Total points: 25

• #1 Administrative: 6 pts (includes both cost cuts and revenue option)

o       Group was passionate about these cuts and revenue gains - almost became a Low Hanging Fruit.

o       Utilize panel of experts from universities.

o       Better use of advisory committees.

o       Vote: 16 of 21 - 76%

·        #18-19 BPT; 21-24 Parking, Real Estate, RE Transfer, Sales: 19 points

o       Group wanted to put all revenue options on this list.

o       Could lose businesses/employees.

o       #21-Parking:

§         Considered: cons:  People will shop in the suburbs (car needed); tough economic times so don’t raise this.

§         Pro to this: Discourage car use and improve environment and health issues from lower emissions.

§         Vote: 14 of 21 - 66%

Gut Wrenchers

Total points: 0

Big, Hairy, Ambitious Goals

Total points: 0; did not get to this part

Memorable Quotes

·        Pilot program: Suggested - $38 million

o       Moderators shared the information of the program with the group for their consideration.

Comments from citizens:

o       Health-care-based nonprofits should be exempt from this tax.

o       Is there a threshold for those who would pay in terms of revenue/budget or other factor?

o       Would there be layoffs by the nonprofits?

o       Split entities: charge University of Pennsylvania, but not UPENN Hospital system. (Again, don’t charge health care.)

o       Do nonprofits claim services they donate?

o       UPenn and properties in University City: Is the university gobbling up properties?

o       Tax: explore opportunities/options to tax universities. How are properties that the university owns and rents out taxed?

o       UPenn might be more efficient at some services—how can that be a benefit/savings?

o       Pay fair share.

o       Vote:  18 of 24 - 75%

·        #15 Streets:

o       Roll commercial collection fee into city collection of garbage vs. commercial haulers.

o       “Pay as you throw” may result in lots of garbage in streets/alleys/parks and needs to be though out.

o       Everyone should get basic service/higher user pay.

o       What can you throw out? Type of trash was a concern.

o       Against the change: public health right to have garbage picked up; right as city resident.

o       No vote was taken on this matter.

·        #2 Courts

o       Cuts will slow the flow of court cases; ask city to force state to pay for courts.

o       Vote: 9 of 21 - 43%

·        #13 Public Health

o       Revenue option: Charge restaurants more for inspections; could be done in timely manner (clarified by city official).

New Ideas:

A.     Collect 50% of bail money due (from sheet handed out by activists at forum):  $1B is due; would generate $500M

B.     Real Estate/Abatement: reduce from 10 years to 2-3 years

o       Vote: 15 of 20: 75%

C.     Tax surrounding counties