Councilmember, we would agree that that would be a prudent approach.
Thank you, Councilman. Mr. Agostini, thank you so much.
You're welcome, 198 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 Councilman.
The next and last panel, I'd like to call up Donna Anderton, Sherrie Cohen, Pat DeCarlo, Amy Dougherty and Shelly Yanoff. (Witnesses approached witness table.) MS. DeCARLO: Donna Anderton had to leave two minutes ago.
I'm sorry. Give her my apologies. Thank you. Please proceed.
May I start? Thank you. Good afternoon. I started with good morning. I am Shelly Yanoff and I am Executive Director of PCCY, the region's major child advocacy organization. Thank you for holding this meeting. It's long, but it's important. I won't underscore that we're in troubled times. There's no doubt that the Mayor, the Administration and each of you want to help Philadelphia's children 199 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 and families, and you have done so. But we are at a time and a place that put many at risk. We are here today to urge that you continue to support the programs and services that tens of thousands of kids and their families need and rely on in Philadelphia. They make the difference between a city with hope and one that has none. We do not deny that the decisions before you are serious and difficult, but we want to remind you that there is a heavier cost to postponing some things than others. While postponing tax reductions in the face of an unprecedented economic crisis would probably not have severe impact, postponing needed services would. A child is only 5 or 6 or 12 or 14 once. If his library is closed, if her family support program becomes unavailable, if their after-school program is not opened, if their health center cuts its evening 200 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 and weekend hours, the costs are very high, the impact very severe. We urge you to make sure the programs that support communities that enable parents to work, knowing that their children are at staffed and safe recreation centers and after-school programs, that have health centers that are open and available in the evenings, the only times they can get there, and on weekends, they must remain open. The City and its schools have had many programs in the past that disappeared temporarily and are never seen again. We can't let that happen again. Thus, we urge you to make sure that the 31,000 kids who rely on the health centers for healthcare are open and well functioning when they're needed, that the after-school programs for more than 50,000 youth continue, that the recreation centers continue to offer opportunities to reduce crime and build communities for thousands of families 201 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 across the City, and that the libraries continue to be beacons of hope, open to help kids read and learn and stay safe. These are just beginning steps. We urge, of course, that the City continue its extraordinary work in fighting lead poisoning, that we work to improve the collaboration between the City and its schools, that somehow we continue to offer home visiting to fragile families to keep them out of the child welfare system. There are many new, important and exciting steps that we want to urge you to take in the next several years, but for now we want to leave you as we began, thanking you for your past support and urging that you build support and maintain a safety net, a safety zone, a lifesaver for children and families in Philadelphia. Thank you.
You're welcome. 202 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 Please proceed. MS. DeCARLO: Good afternoon. My name is Patricia DeCarlo. I am the Executive Director of Norris Square Civic Association, a neighborhood-based development organization in North Philadelphia. I do not have as happy or hopeful news as Sherrie here does.
Shelly. MS. DeCARLO: Shelly. NSCA takes pride in being the single most important force in turning the Norris Square neighborhood around from a drug-infested needle park in the badlands to a reasonably safe community of neighbors in North Philadelphia that struggles against incredible odds to raise and educate healthy children. This time last year, I think later on, we were informed that the Beacon program at Hunter School was being closed, the Beacon program at Julia de Burgos was being closed and the Beacon 203 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 program at Visitation was being closed. All three Beacon programs are in the eastern North Philadelphia community, which is generally known as the Latino district. This happened as a result of a requirement that $20 million in deficit spending be made up, and so that community bore a heavy burden. The Beacons in --
You said $20 million in deficit spending by the City? MS. DeCARLO: This was the whole debacle with the City --
The Safe and Sound? MS. DeCARLO: -- Safe and Sound, and so it closed down the Beacons. The Beacons in more well-off communities in the City of Philadelphia were kept open. The ones in the more distressed 204 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 parts of the City were closed. We met with Deputy Mayor several times and informed him of the impact that this has had, the closing of three Beacons all in one single community, and he assured us that he would look into it and would get back to us. That summer, this summer, after much deliberation and analysis on the part of the City, the City announced that it was shutting down all of the AVRP center-based programs. These were comprehensive programs, after-school programs for what were the most at-risk youth in the poor communities, kids who were truant, who were in the juvenile delinquency system, who had parents on drugs or incarcerated, so the kids that are on the verge of tipping over and going into criminal behavior. All center-based programs were closed. What we were told -- the Youth Worker program was kept. What we were 205 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 told was that we should send the youth, the children in the Youth Worker program for evening activities and afternoon activities to the Beacon programs. Well, I raised my hand and said, What do we do? There's no Beacon. We'll get back to you. I'm still waiting. So the Latino community has no 11 Beacons, no center base, no evening activities for any youth, crispy or otherwise, at a time when drug corners are merging, taking over each other's corners and doing gunfire in the middle of the afternoon. Three o'clock in the afternoon, half a block from our child care center we now have more gunshots than I have ever seen, and I've been there 20 years. So the economy is working its mysterious ways, but if we all remember, when we -- it's the economy, stupid. It gets violent when folks get hard up, harder than they're willing to take. 206 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 That's not doing well in the community. So besides AVRP, we were then told that the curfew centers were not going to be closed, they were going to be consolidated. Out of 11, they cut seven. There are four curfew centers. The one in the Latino community in the Lighthouse was closed. The closest curfew center is in Frankford. So I then remember listening to the gentleman with the budget on prisons and juvenile justice. I don't think we really want a recipe of locking people and imprisoning as our solution to an economic problem that's getting worse in our poor neighborhoods. So I ask you to consider when we're looking at budget cuts, that we don't continue to do budget cuts on the most fragile in our community, in our cities and push more and more people into the brinks of crime and juvenile delinquency. It's not healthy for anybody. 207 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 We talk about housing. We're concerned about the overbuilding of condos. Si. I kept looking and I say, Who is going to fill up all these condos with $2 million condos and $1 million condos? In the meantime, the real estate market went up and poor people have been left homeless. Poor people can't afford the rents anymore. So we need to invest and build housing for low-income families, rental and homeownership. We need to do programs that have sweat equity so that poor families who come into those houses have an ownership stake in them because they're painting them, they're putting part of the work in it. They're a lot cheaper to do, it keeps people employed and it keeps us from getting a larger and larger homeless family that we can't afford to have in this city. When we cut programs for children, we're not only leaving children out in the streets where they're not 208 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 safe, we're also leaving unemployed youth who are tutors and youth counselors.
We're leaving unemployed parents who work in those programs, and we are exacerbating already serious economic conditions of the poor. So you already know we've already been cut, we've already been slashed, those that can ill afford. So I put together four strategies, because I heard you talk about strategies of what we do. I think that we need to think about growth, not about cuts. But they have to be strategic. So, number one, shift to programs and activities that do things that diminish worse results. Example: You have a housing counselor program that you should all be very proud of. It's the only one in the country to prevent foreclosures. So we invest money in housing counselors that help people who are facing foreclosure so they can negotiate in court and not lose their 209 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 homes. If you didn't invest in that program, you'd have a bunch of people losing their homes and a bunch more that are homeless. So you need the same kind of program with children. If you have programs for children so they're off the streets, for youth so they're off the streets, so they're doing productive activities, they're engaging in worthwhile activities, you won't have that much violence in the street, because they're engaged. If you don't do anything, all you're doing is spending more money on police to lock them up. Not a real healthy way of spending money. Number two, things that produce positive economic results. Invest in jobs that train and hire the youth. The winter is coming. It's around the corner. Train youth to do energy audits, to learn about weatherization. They can go into their own neighborhoods, once they've learned. It doesn't take that 210 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 long to do it, trust me. I've learned. And we put youth in their community to help weatherize homes for seniors, for low-income families. You're getting them to do productive, serious activities. They're learning skills that they can use in the future, and we may be able to get into some of these greening jobs that the Governor has set money aside for. PGW might be interested in looking at what they can do. Eliminate/reduce activities that have a negative impact on low-income families that are entrepreneurs or trying to. Example: L&I continues to go after folks in low-income communities, You don't have this permit, you don't have that license. This is not the time for permits, for licenses, for charging people fines. It's the time to encourage people to set up businesses. A young man in our neighborhood who fixes cars and tries to sell them and, therefore, doesn't have the tags 211 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 isn't being helped when the police come and tow away the car. So let's think in terms of what are things we can help to encourage low-income families to engage in business and not penalize them because they don't have some tag or another or some permit or another. Fourth, do an analysis of the state and federal funding not accessed by the City and what we have to do to access. One real clear example: There's a program called CCIS. It is a state subsidy for parents who work that helps them pay in early childhood and after-school programs. But in order to access CCIS, the program has to be licensed. So we at Norris Square have licensed programs. We have the highest unemployment rate of any of the communities in the City, so that doesn't get us a whole lot of anything, except that we put the extra effort that we're licensed. But communities with high 212 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 employment rates should be required within three months, four months to get licensed and/or lose their funding. Because parents who work, all they do is pay a small co-pay and then all this additional dollars comes into the programs, and then you can shift your dollars over to programs that need it more.
But if we look at the state and federal funds that are there that are not being accessed, we get creative, we can really work them into places that need it more. Thank you. You have a challenge in front of you. One last one. I'm sorry. Increase funds, don't decrease, increase funds into low-income housing development with the sweat equity. Tax credits are being lost at the state level because of the bond market, and HOME dollars aren't going to be there. So Philadelphia is going to lose that housing because they can't make up that financing. We need to 213 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 figure out how to get that financing back in place so that we don't lose those tax credits and that low-income housing. Somebody needs to meet with the people. WCRP was funded for the tax credits that just came back, the City. They're not going to be able to do the tax credits because the HOME funding won't be there. So it's to start looking at those areas so that you can bring back money and help those that are going to need it most and, at the same time, grow the economy, not cut the economy. Thank you.
Good afternoon. Thank you for letting me speak with you today. I'm Amy Dougherty, Director of the Friends of the Free Library of Philadelphia. And bear with me. I do not have written testimony, but I do have some main points that I'd like to briefly go over with you. Clearly, this is an 214 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 unprecedented fiscal crisis internationally and nationally in the City. I've changed my thoughts and testimony about times sitting here, 6 because, first of all, because I've 7 learned a lot. I've gotten a lot of new 8 fiscal information. But also I think 9 that what I'd like to do is talk about 10 turning this crisis into opportunities 11 and talk a little bit about some of the 12 problems we have in terms of education 13 and some of the assets that we have. 14 I'll just briefly go through 15 this. You've probably heard these 16 statistics before, but I just want to 17 mention them here. 18 Twenty-five percent of 19 Philadelphians live in poverty. 20 Forty-five percent of working adults are out of work and not looking for work. Fifty percent are without home computers, and more than two of three jobs require higher literacy levels than many Philadelphians have. Forty-five percent 215 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 of Philadelphians are high school dropouts. Seven out of ten inmates in the State of Pennsylvania are illiterate. And statistics show and studies show that children who grow up without a book-rich environment fall behind in 5th, 6th grade and never catch up and add to the dropout rates going forward. But what we do have is 53 library branches. Wherever you live in the City of Philadelphia, there's a library within two and a half miles from where you live. And what I would like to do is take the fiscal crisis and use it as an opportunity to go back and look at what the mission of the Library is and what the Library actually does. The Library is actually in the business of education, children and adults, transitioning workers, future workers and current workers. That is what the Library does now, and it will continue to do that if we keep funding levels up. In fact, increase funding. 216 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 So if we can look at some targeted programs, a continuation of open hours. In fact, increase hours. In the neighborhoods in Philadelphia where crime and poverty are the highest, library hours are the shortest.
In many of the neighborhoods where crime and unemployment and illiteracy is the highest, library hours are the shortest. There are nine communities, nine libraries that don't have any evening hours. Have not for a decade. Kensington is one of them. Haddington is another. So when we look at library hours, when we look at services, what we need to do is look at the opportunities. We've got 53 buildings. We've got staff, almost enough staff to provide education for current workers, transitioning workers, adults now, adults in the 217 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 future. And education equals job training, anti-crime, job readiness, literacy programs. When I say "literacy," I'm talking about reading literacy and computer literacy. Let me give you an example of a missed opportunity and what I mean by targeted programming. There are three Gates Computer Labs in three libraries in the City of Philadelphia. One in Oak Lane, one in Pascallville -- actually, four. One in Pascallville, one in Lillian Marrero, which is in the heart of North Philadelphia, and one in Kensington. So the Library got a donation of hardware and software, but what the Library doesn't have is program money. So we've got computers, computer programs sitting idle, and we have got an enormous number of residents in these communities who are computer illiterate. There's something wrong with that picture. So I think that what I would 218 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 like to reiterate today is that libraries equal education. Education equals jobs. And when the economy turns around, which it will, we want Philadelphians to be ready, we want our children to be ready, and we want our current workers to be ready. I think that what we really need to look at is not simply -- I came in here thinking what I was going to ask you for was if the Library has to take cuts, let it be equitable throughout the system, and two hours later I've completely turned around my answer. MS. DeCARLO: Thank you.
My ask is what we need is libraries to stay open more than they are now. We need every branch to have evening hours and every branch to have Saturday hours. But what I did give you, and you should have gotten a copy of it, is the basic mission of the Library. And the next piece is where libraries are 219 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 based on income brackets of those communities, and you will see how many, at least a third of those libraries, are where income levels are below 50 percent, meaning -- excuse me; meaning that 50 percent of Philadelphians living within the poverty level. I think that we need to be careful. I don't want to get into this conversation and I don't want the City, I don't want the Mayor and I don't want City Council to say who is more deserving of library services, who is more deserving of educational services. Does Chestnut Hill need it more or less than Southwest Philadelphia? I don't want to divide the City that way. I don't want to divide residents that way. It's not productive and it's not helpful. There's one more thing I wanted to point out, and, that is, most schools in the City of Philadelphia do not have libraries. If they have libraries, they have severely outdated books and 220 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 materials. MS. DeCARLO: They don't have librarians.
And they don't have librarians. The Library basically functions as the City's school system's libraries, educational. Go to any library in the afternoon. It's loaded with kids. Go to any library in the morning and it's loaded with seniors and transitioning workers. Go to any of the libraries that are open in the evening, again loaded with transitioning workers and students, adult students and young students. I just want to tell you one brief story and then take any questions that you might have. My husband, who works for Fairmount Park, was trying to set up a meeting in the Haddington Library area, 60th and Girard, for a community group that was working on a community park, and he suggested the library. Well, why don't we have the 221 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 meeting at the library. And the person he was working with said, Well, the library is not open in the evening. Our library, Haddington, is not open in the evening. And he said, Well, okay, how about Saturday? And she said, It's not open on Saturday either. So he said to her, Well, when do you go to the library? And her response was telling. She said, I don't. So here we have, you know -- here we have 53 buildings staffed. The hours weren't working for three-quarters of that community, so they were shut out of those kinds of educational opportunities. That is -- I can go on and on. I am not going to. I thank you for your time, and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.
Thank you. 222 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 Ms. Cohen.
Good morning, Councilman Clarke and members of the Oversight Committee. My name is Sherrie Cohen and I am a member of the Steering Committee of One Philadelphia. As we can all see from the federal government's reaction to the financial market meltdown, what matters most in a crisis is political will. Political will was summoned in Washington, DC to save Wall Street, and political will must be summoned here in Philadelphia to save Main Street. We should all demand it, and One Philadelphia is demanding it today. I thought I was going to be on the One Philadelphia panel, you see. One Philadelphia objects to the process and premise that City services must be sacrificed. The process by the Mayor's Office should be participatory. Forms should be held throughout the City to ask Philadelphians in all 223 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 neighborhoods for their priorities for budget cuts before cuts, if any, are determined. The premise for cutting City services is also at fault, as has been stated repeatedly today, because it is so important. S. cities. More than percent of our 11 people live in poverty and more than 37 12 percent of our children live in poverty. 13 That is double the rate -- more than 14 double the rate in the state and more 15 than one and a half times as great as the 16 national average. 17 The deepening recession will 18 further harm our most vulnerable 19 residents and plunge more of them into 20 poverty. Also, as the economy weakens, 21 the need for City services will increase 22 as residents lose jobs, income and health 23 insurance. 24 Cutting services to our City's 25 most vulnerable citizens must be the last 224 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 step the City takes, not the first. First collect taxes from the businesses who owe them. Hire additional audit staff in the Revenue Department. They generate up to ten times their salary in revenue for the City. Second, the tax cuts enacted last year for the business community should be paused, as has been discussed. Over the next ten years, these tax cuts would cost the City some $700 million. Third, let us raise more revenue by instituting a fair and equitable tax structure. Our City's wage tax should instead be an income tax for all to pay. Now we single out wages for taxation, but not the income of those more affluent who enjoy intangible wealth from stocks, bonds and capital gains. I would like to hear an estimate from the City Budget staff of how much the people of Philadelphia have been losing each year due to our unfair tax structure. Raising money as we have been 225 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 from the people who have the least of it is illogical at best. The best-off 4 percent of Americans make more than the 5 remaining 80 percent combined. Soaking 6 the middle classes just doesn't yield 7 much revenue compared to modest taxes on 8 the rich. Fair taxes are essential to 9 adequate funding of City services because 10 they tax those who have the most to give. 11 As the Institute on Taxation 12 and Economic Policy reports, low-income 13 Pennsylvanians pay a much greater share 14 of their income than middle income and 15 high-income people. 8 percent. The economic crisis is a human rights issue. The lives of our fellow Philadelphians are at stake. That is the central premise of One Philadelphia, that 226 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 the City's budget is a moral document, that our City budget must be a human rights budget, one that places people, human needs and human rights, first. We urge the Mayor, the Administration and City Council to adopt this human rights framework and not cut services to our most vulnerable residents. This is 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Universal Declaration, crafted under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt in the aftermath of the Great Depression and the Second World War and signed by the United States, declares that everyone has inalienable political and civil and economic and social rights. Governments have obligations to respect, protect and fulfill those human rights, which include the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to housing, the right to education, the right to freedom from 227 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 hunger, the right to freedom from poverty. The government's obligation to fulfill human rights requires that governments take appropriate legislative, administrative, budgetary, judicial and other measures towards the full realization of human rights. We will not stay silent in the face of this financial crisis if Philadelphians living in poverty are asked to bear its burden. Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Perfecto Lasenski (ph). I'm testifying on behalf of Nicholas Torres, President of Congreso de Latinos Unidos. Unfortunately, Nick was not able to attend. He had prior commitments. And I would like to thank Councilman Clarke and Councilwoman --
Bring that 228 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 mike a little closer to you.
I was just stating we would like to thank you and Councilwoman Quinones for the opportunity to express our viewpoints on the essential services that ensure our communities move forward. Congreso has been providing high-quality human services in eastern North Philadelphia for over 30 years as part of our mission to strengthen Latino communities through social, economic, education, health services, leadership development and advocacy. During this time, Congreso has compassionately served tens of thousands of people with education, employment, health and supportive services. In July of 2007, Congreso launched a focus strategy, understanding that only through the attainment of education credentials and/or workforce competencies can an individual have sustainable impact and, therefore, become 229 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 financially independent. At the core of our strategy is the philosophy that financial stability will serve as a catalyst for improved health and safety. In Philadelphia, the Latino population has increased by over 70 percent since 1990 and now comprises ten and a half percent of Philadelphia's total population. Latinos in Philadelphia have the lowest median income of any ethnic group at $20,460, with over 70 percent of Congreso's clients reporting an annual income of $10,000 or less. In addition, approximately 50 percent of Latinos in Philadelphia are unemployed or not in the labor force. Among Latino youth, the outcomes are worse in the City. A recent study indicates that only 40 percent of Latino youth in Philadelphia public schools graduate high school on time. With many of our adult clients earning less than $10,000 annually, most 230 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 are only able to live day to day, without much hope from moving their families out of poverty. Our young people face similar challenges, with many of our young Latino youth -- many of our young Latino youth have dreams of attending or graduating from college, but are unable to do so when faced with the reality of community, family and financial constraints. While some adults and young people are able to get connected to career opportunities or make sacrifices that enable them to attend college, for the majority of individuals, career opportunities do not exist, and the sacrifices are too large to make their dreams a reality. Nevertheless, there is a great interest in motivation among individuals in our community to pursue their education and employment opportunities. Out of a survey of 411 clients enrolled in Congreso's primary client management 231 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 model, of those who responded, more than 56 percent expressed an interest in continuing their education. Undermining our efforts are the reductions in many of our service contracts. About a year ago we eliminated the Calle Americana CareerLink because the system placed a freeze on hiring, resulting in key staff not being replaced, which undermined the infrastructure of the initiative. In the winter/spring of 2008, we experienced the reduction of many youth development opportunities provided through the Beacon centers and after-school programs as a result of the Safe and Sound and the City of Philadelphia needing to reduce their deficit spending. In the summer of 2008, we experienced further reductions as a result of the child welfare system shifting from cost reimbursement to fee-for-service contracts. And recently our maternal, infant and child health 232 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 safe contract was eliminated due to a 40 percent reduction in City funds, forcing the City to reduce from five to two contractors. Finally, our preventative health contract with the Department of Health was just reduced by 50 percent. These reductions were on top of the few preventative services that existed to assist individuals and families with their immediate needs before they fall into crisis.
We understand that programs and organizations need to adapt and shift according to changing priorities. However, these program reductions were not accompanied with new investments better aligned with current priorities. As a result, most of our residents will not be served through the provision of essential services. It is expected that other providers who are funded by the government will provide services to our 233 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 community residents. However, we know this not to be the case. For example, our residents didn't travel or weren't provided language-appropriate services by the CareerLink on Spring Garden before the opening of Calle Americana CareerLink. Knowing that clients continue to walk through our doors to receive the services, we also understand that they aren't now traveling to the Spring Garden branch. These reductions will also reduce any gains that we've had over the years. As a result of these reductions, without new investments, we're going to start playing witness to more families falling into economic crisis. Our adults, despite their willingness to work, currently do not have an avenue into the workforce. We expect to see truancy increase within our neighborhoods as a result of families being forced to focus their most pressing needs of food, shelter, safety and dealing with social 234 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 stressors. We expect that current health disparities to increase because most preventative initiatives have been eliminated. Our families will arrive at hospitals and health clinics with diseases that could have been prevented and would cost the system much less. So, again, we understand that programs and organizations need to adapt and shift according to changing priorities, but program reductions within communities need to be accompanied with new investments that are better aligned to current priorities. Investments in communities today determine the outlook of Philadelphia tomorrow. Thank you for your time.
Thank you for your testimony. Councilman Jones and then Councilman Green.
Thank you all for your testimony. May I ask a question, is there a recurring theme that 235 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 some of these cuts potentially are economic discrimination in some neighborhoods? Is that what I'm hearing, that the poorest neighborhoods -- make it plain -- that the poorest neighborhoods are getting the larger cuts?
Well, you could say, Well, you should look at the information I just gave you. I should. I think that -- I wouldn't say that. I would say that there are -- I would say that many of the neighborhoods that suffer from -- that are poor are going to be hit, but not all of them. So not all of the poor neighborhoods with those living percent under the poverty 18 level are being hit, but many of them 19 are. 20 So I wouldn't say that it's 21 specifically economic discrimination. I 22 wouldn't say that at all. What I would 23 say is that my understanding of what -- 24 and these were proposed cuts that the 25 Mayor rescinded. So the Mayor's 236 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 Office -- and we appreciate and applaud that he did that, but I know that they are looking at better ways to obviously cut the Library budget. I don't think there are any good ways or any possible ways to cut the Library budget. I think it's probable that one of the ways that this decision was made on which the proposal was made on which branches to cut had to do with where the staffing is now. I think that -- so if we want to get into some specifics, I think this is an opportunity to look at in a positive way the agency that is the Library and make some determinations of where the staffing is, why it is and figure out a way to make it equitable and more possible for all Philadelphians to have access to the amazing resources that our great Library has to offer.
I can't speak to whether or not it's economic discrimination, but I do know that the neighborhoods that need the help the most 237 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 are the poor neighborhoods. So they are going to feel it the most when you cut these after-school programs, Beacon programs. And it seems to be that they were cut first in the poorer communities. So they'll feel it first and they'll feel it longest.
Ms. Cohen? I understand the situation this municipality, like other municipalities, like other branches of government are going through, but as we make tough decisions and as we provide prudent measures to reduce our exposure and deficit, that we should not have a system that over-penalizes or, as you well put, one community against another, that they be equal and that they be fair and that they be across the board. And we're going to -- I'm going to urge my colleagues here to keep an eye towards that, that we do things in a fair manner that does not disproportionately by intent or by impact any one community 238 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 over another. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Councilman. I know you didn't ask me this question, and I think the definition of "discrimination" is probably what caused some pause with respect to the response by the panel, but the sheer nature of the way the government is structured is that those most challenged communities tend to be most dependent on government. So when there are cuts in expenditures by government, it's going to hit those communities that are the most challenged and tend to be the most low-income neighborhoods. That's the way it happens. One of the things that as we move ahead I would like to see the government do is to, as they prioritize issues, focus on the core functions of service delivery by government, because that is in fact something that 239 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 everyone -- everyone in the community needs to have their refuse, their trash picked up, everybody needs to have water service, everybody needs to have all of the things that these service departments are, from my position, are mandated to provide. And as we move on -- and the Administration will essentially be the entity that will propose the cuts -- we looked at some of the other issues, but I am concerned that because of the fact that the lower-income neighborhoods are more dependent on government, that when these cuts are made, it will impact those who least can afford reductions in services and government expenditures. The first cuts that were made by this Administration, as we heard today and we knew earlier, were cuts among programs that service extremely challenged neighborhoods, the cuts in adolescence and youth violence reduction programs, Beacon schools, things of that nature. We were told during the course 240 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 of the briefings that there were going to be programs put in place that took the place of those programs that were going to be eliminated. We were somewhat skeptical at the time of those briefings, and what I've heard from a couple of the individuals today, that our skepticism was well founded, because people didn't automatically -- those individuals who most needed those services didn't automatically go to the newer programs and in some cases those new programs weren't even created. So I just want to say that we're going to be looking as a body very, very strongly and with a level of detail that I suspect you think we should as your elected officials as we move forward. This is a strong Mayor form of government. As witnessed in past years in Administrations, we can appropriate whatever we want to appropriate, but if the Mayor decides not to spend it, we 241 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 can't make him spend it. But we hope as we move ahead in some of these decisions, that we can adequately represent all of you, all of the citizens across the City as it relates to making sure that we continue to make our communities whole. So I just want to thank you for your testimony. I know Councilman Green, you had a question. Please proceed. I just wanted to get that out there.
Yeah. It's more of a point of information. I appreciate everything that everybody had to say in the testimony today and share the goal of moving to a progressive tax structure, but I think it's important for a few points just to be clarified for the record. The first is that Philadelphia as a municipality can't solve its fiscal crisis by taxing rich people, because unlike a nation where there's very little places to hide, it's very simple for 242 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 people to move from Philadelphia County to Montgomery County, Bucks County, et cetera, and if we look to do that to solve our problems, there wouldn't be any wealthy people left in Philadelphia. As a proportion of wealth to poverty in this city, it's not impressive compared to the rest of the country, and the burden can't just be on Philadelphia. We're a city that's basically on a slow path downhill, and that's been the case for years. The only chance 14 we have to get out of our problems are 15 help from the federal and the state government. Our schools are $1 billion underfunded. We can't do a thing to help our children and to help people in poverty unless we can properly educate them. We don't have -- there are so many fundamental problems. Our infrastructure, we can't afford to repair the infrastructure that's ten years old right now. There's no way we're going to get the money for that in the near 243 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 future. The solution for us comes from banning together with other cities and lobbying the federal and state government for long-term solutions for people in poverty that are nationwide that will disproportionately have a positive impact on cities, because there's a lot of pockets of poverty in cities like Philadelphia, and that needs to be one of the number one priorities of us working together with the Administration in terms of getting that message out there. Thank you.
I'd just like to make a response briefly. I mean, there are studies that show that areas where there is a higher rate of taxation for individuals where people know that the funds are going to an improved educational system, an improved infrastructure, that people have been 244 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 willing to pay those taxes when they know exactly what it's going for and that it is making a difference. So I wanted to respond there to that point, Councilman. And to Councilman Clarke, as to your earlier comment, I mean, my hope would be that with the human rights framework, the cuts could be made -- the least cuts could be made to the communities most in need. I think that's what an equitable approach would involve.
Well, we will know, I think, in approximately two weeks what the proposals are, and I guess we're all asking everybody to hold on, because I have a feeling it's going to be somewhat brutal. But, unfortunately, the national economy has accelerated the problems that were coming down the pike to a large degree. But as your elected representatives, we will do the best we can to get us out of this problem. I'd like to thank you all, thank everybody for coming in and 245 10/21/08 - FISCAL STABILITY - RES. 080603 testifying. The Committee on Fiscal Stability will stand in recess to the call of the Chair. Thank you all very much.
Thank you for holding the hearing. (Committee on Fiscal Stability and Intergovernmental Cooperation adjourned at 2:15 p.m.) - - - 246 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on October 21, 2008, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)