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Gov. Corbett has proposed pension reform as a vital cost saving measure for Pennsylvania. So why are professional number crunchers now saying it could actually cost taxpayers $50.8 billion over the next 30 years?
State Treasurer Rob McCord said in a conference call this afternoon that the proposed pension reform would both “increase the insecurity of a large number of Pennsylvanians and decrease the money flowing into Pennsylvania’s economy.” Corbett’s bill would cut state contributions to pensions, lower retiree benefits, and convert all future state workers’ retirement plans from a defined benefit system to a defined contribution system, like the 401(k) plans many private businesses offer their employees. McCord said defined contribution plans suffer from a “triple whammy” of higher investment management fees, lower investment returns, and shorter longevity of funds.
Today, City Council laid out what it hopes the city can do for Philly schools, in answer to the School District's request of $60 million in city funds and $120 million from the state to cover a $304 million budget gap. The answer: $74 million through a cigarette tax hike that still requires state approval, and increased tax collections that City Council President Darrell Clarke not long ago termed "speculative." Clarke said a liquor by the drink tax, which also requires state authorization, would not be on the table this year. But he wants to get the state approval, so that the Council can have the tax at their disposal in case it's needed next year.
He also said he hasn't forgotten about a proposed change to the state Uniformity Clause, which could enable the city to tax different properties at different rates — such as putting a higher tax on businesses than on residences.
And then Clarke said something really interesting: "Currently, 55 percent of City property taxes goes to the School District of Philadelphia, which has been under state control for more than a decade. And 45 percent of revenues raised from property taxes goes to City services and functions, including public safety. Meanwhile, City Council continues to have zero representation on the School Reform Commission. I anticipate meaningful discussions on this matter.”
The more immediate question is: Will the state get the schools over the finish line? The current proposed budget — including the layoffs of 1,200 school safety staff — would not allow schools to operate safely, numerous counselors, teachers and principals have told City Paper in recent days.
No matter what happens, the schools would be coming from a bleak baseline. A new report from Unite Here finds that there were more than 10,000 serious incidents in schools in the past school year, more than half in elementary schools. "Reported incidents included a total of 1,330 assaults, 973 cases of disorderly conduct with injury, 472 weapons infractions, 704 threats and 13 rapes and attempts," according to the report.
A weekly series of foul-mouthed investigations into empty lots, dead-ass proposals and other design phenomena in Philadelphia. Find more stories like this at Philaphilia.blogspot.com.
825 Walnut Street
This is the kind of Dead-Ass Proposal that really pisses me the fuck off. A highrise in a location that sorely needs it, a project that would have had huge success for multiple reasons, a replacement for a decades-old surface parking lot. This would have been a major landmark for the city and world record-breaker. What a disappointment.
“There is definite, concrete evidence of unlawful behavior on the part of the NSA and other intelligence agencies,” says Zach Taylor, a 23-year-old web developer who is organizing a Restore the Fourth rally in Philadelphia. “This is a criminal policy that is blatantly unconstitutional. It threatens each and every American personally in a way that few other policies do.” Taylor, like thousands of other activists across the country, sees recent revelations surrounding the NSA’s unlawful access to private citizens’ phone and internet records as an opportunity to act on his beliefs about privacy rights guaranteed by the fourth amendment of the U.S. Constitution. “It would be unfortunate to see this opportunity for dramatic change in government policy to go to waste.”
Patricia Norris hasn’t eaten today — and she won't. She and three other parents and school district employees began a hunger strike this morning to protest the 3,700 layoffs announced by the Philadelphia School District. A food-service assistant at Cayuga Elementary, where she has worked for almost three years, Norris hasn't been laid off yet but worries she could still receive a pink slip. To avoid feeling hungry, “I chew the water,” said Norris. Here’s hoping the strike, organized by United Here Local 634, will be a more effective plan of attack.
Another striker, Marcia Teagot, a food service manager, said she was still employed as of last Friday. But since the pink slips were sent out recently, she still isn’t sure whether she has kept her job
This afternoon, students in South Philadelphia's Jackson Elementary School celebrated the completion of a 5,000-square-foot mosaic completed with help from COSACOSA Art At Large, a nonprofit organization, and support from Public Citizens for Children and Youth.
Leveraging outside programs like this one to enrich students' experience has been a key strategy for Principal Lisa Kaplan. But she isn't sure how she could possibly pull off something like this again next year.
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A last-minute School District plan to allow the Sustainability Workshop to take over West Philadelphia High School's automotive building has angered community members.
"If you are going to close 24 schools, why do you have to take one from West?" asks Philadelphia Student Union Director Hiram Rivera.
Principal Mary Sandra Dean, according to critics' accounts, was only told about the takeover between two weeks and one month ago. Dean did not respond to a request for comment. Rivera says that Deputy Superintendent for Career and Technical Education David M. Kipphut told Dean, almost as an aside, "Hey, you're going to lose your automotive building," as she was leaving a meeting.
Marcus Gary, chairman of the West Philly High School Advisory Council and parent of an auto academy student, complains that "this was an undercover deal already made."
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Republican Gov. Tom Corbett will nominate Superior Court Justice Correale F. Stevens, who in 2007 appeared at a rally against the illegal "alien invasion," to fill a temporary vacancy on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
"Something is a little bit bizarre here, backwards and upside down, and we need to turn that around," Stevens told the crowd. "The city of Hazleton tries to enforce the law, and they get taken to court."
Last month, Corbett drew unfavorable national media attention after he told a Philadelphia gathering that he could not find a single Latino to work in his administration.
Stevens, who joined state Rep. Daryl D. Metcalfe and then-Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta at the state Capitol rally in support of anti-immigrant legislation, was referring to a Hazelton law that bars hiring or renting to an undocumented immigrant, and makes English the city's official language. The law had been struck down by a federal court. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the ruling and remanded it to a federal appeals court after they partially upheld Arizona's controversial law.
The “SRC 16” — a group of parents, community members and recent high school graduates who were arrested in March for blocking the doors to a School Reform Commission meeting that determined the closure of 23 public schools — were all acquitted today of misdimeanor charges.
Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge T. Francis Shields found there was not enough evidence to support charges of disorderly conduct for any of the defendants. The only testimony came from Lieutenant Joseph O’Brien of the Philadelephia Police Civil Affairs Unit, who said he recognized 12 of the 16 defendants, but did not confirm they were the ones blocking the doors. In fact, O’Brien said he was not clear on the protesters’ motivations or the agenda for the meeting. The weekly SRC meetings are “basically the same thing — programs being cut, people being laid off,” he said.
After several years of panic over the Actual Value Initiative (AVI), it passed somewhat anticlimactically today in City Council. The tax rate is 1.34 percent, the homestead exemption is $30,000. So, you can calculate your tax bill accordingly. Council members Mark Squilla, Kenyatta Johnson, Bill Green, David Oh and Brian O'Neill voted "no."
And a gentrification relief bill is still in the works, but has been amended to allow for means-testing as well as to cap its total cost at $20 million (from $30 million). The means-testing relies on state authorization.
Also, smokers, you have a city cigarette tax coming to you, at $2 per pack. If, that is, enabling legislation introduced by state Sen. Anthony Williams passes out of the state legislature. So far, it has not moved out of the Senate Finance Committee and a meeting of the committee is not scheduled. (The committee, incidentally, is also where state Sen. Mike Stack's proposed legislation to let the city employ aggressive tax-collection strategies such as garnishing the wages of tax delinquents is languishing.)
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