|
Title:
|
Mayor John F. Street
Budget Address
January 28, 2003
Good morning President Verna, members of City Council, special friends and distinguished guests.
I am here today to present for Council's consideration my proposed 3.3 billion dollar General Fund operating budget and my proposed capital budget and program, along with my proposed Five Year Financial Plan for FY 04 through 08. This plan contains approximately $319 million in wage and business tax reductions and approximately $500 million of cost saving and revenue generating proposals. Notwithstanding our State Constitutionally imposed capitol borrowing limits we have crafted an efficient program that makes the most effective use of our resources and reasonably provides for the maintenance of the city's existing facilities.
I believe the adoption of these budgets will move us closer to being the world-class city we all want.
Across the nation, a deep and persistent recession has played havoc with federal, state and local budgets. Philadelphia is not immune. A bad economy is simultaneously driving down our revenues and driving up our costs. Thankfully we are in better condition than most local governments, because of the fiscal restraint we have shown over the past decade.
With your assistance, we have cut, streamlined and rationalized the operations of our government to meet the economic and service challenges of the times. With the help of the dedicated men and women who work for the City, we have done more with less, and found better ways to do our business. With the budget I submit to you today, we step up our efforts to modernize this government and to improve the quality of life for all Philadelphians.
I'm proud that we have resisted the temptation to ease the burden on government by placing higher tax burdens on our citizens. Other governments are routinely raising taxes and cutting vital services as they struggle with their budgets in these tough times.
In the 90s, working in tandem with a great mayor, Ed Rendell, whose strong leadership will be as valuable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania now as it was to Philadelphia a decade ago, we pulled this City back from the abyss. Surely Ed Rendell left Philadelphia in a much stronger position than he found it.
But let us not forget the challenges we still faced when you and I took office three years ago:
- Philadelphia Gas Works was on life support;
- We were in danger of losing the Eagles and the Phillies, because there was no commitment to build new sports facilities;
- Our public school system, not withstanding slow but steady progress, was failing largely because it lacked adequate state financial support;
- People in our neighborhoods felt neglected, convinced that the development of Center City had taken precedence over their every day problems of crime, drug violence; blight and abandonment; and
- We had completed the largest period of economic expansion in the history of this great country, leaving us with the challenge of continuing our progress in tough economic times.
Today, PGW is on sound financial footing.
New, state of the art world-class sports facilities are being built.
Parents, teachers and children are experiencing real change in public education as the State is contributing millions more than when we took office.
Neighborhoods are safer and cleaner. We have removed over 155,000 abandoned cars, cleaned over 32,000 vacant lots of more than 25 tons of trash, and reduced the incidence of crime, violence and homicides citywide through an internationally renowned Operation Safe Streets program.
We have built upon the foundation we inherited three years ago, turning our attention to neighborhoods without turning our backs on Center City. World-class cities have strong; thriving; vibrant central business districts; ours ranks among the best!
We are proud of the progress we have made in promoting Center City, economic development, jobs and business in our City.
Our economic development professionals are visiting every significant business whose lease expires over the next five years to determine actions necessary to keep them in the city. Most recently, Radian Group has decided to remain in Center City with its 440 employees.
We have marketed Philadelphia to suburban and national firms. American Business Financial Services and Keating Development Corporation have decided to move more than 1000 jobs from the Philadelphia suburbs into Center City.
Nationally-recognized retailers like IKEA and Lowe's, financial service giants like Vanguard, along with new economy businesses, solicited by Innovation Philadelphia, including Apptec Labs, Innaphase and Living Naturally, are committed to begin operations in our city. These companies alone represent more than 1700 new high paying jobs.
New development is springing up from one end of our city to the other; from the Philadelphia International Airport to the job rich commercial and industrial corridor in the Northeast; from the spectacular growth in University City, to the exciting residential and commercial activity taking place along the waterfront; including the Navy Yard and our planned efforts along the North Delaware River corridor, I would match the development taking place in Philadelphia with any urban center in America.
Our business and economic development activities will be discussed in greater detail next week at the annual Chamber of Commerce luncheon. However, the budget before you continues to provide stimulus funds for economic and job development; we fund Innovation Philadelphia and we continue to support the tax abatement initiatives that make Philadelphia a more attractive destination for businesses and development.
Hospitality is an integral part of our local and regional economy and Convention Center expansion is indispensable to both the preservation and growth of hospitality. I am committed more than ever to expansion and the resolution of the labor/ management problems, which plague the Center.
We must protect the 57,000 jobs and $1.3 billion in annual wages the hospitality industry currently provides to our region. We must capture the 3,000 new jobs that expansion promises. And we also must protect the city's general fund from the losses, which will inevitably result from the continuation of the current untenable status and a failure to expand.
Unfortunately, our progress toward both of these goals has been impeded by an outrageous, partisan and I believe illegal power grab with the passage of Senate Bill 1100. While the takeover was couched in the lofty language of reform and progress, it appears motivated by the age-old lust for patronage and power.
If this action were merely a slap at a democratic Mayor and democratic Governor-elect, I could understand, even if I did not like it. After all, politics is a contact sport! But the negative impact of this partisan behavior extends beyond the world of politics and will deal a serious setback to the lives of people in our city.
It jeopardizes the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in hospitality infrastructure; undermines a very important growth segment of our economy; compromises the labor/ management agreement endorsed by the board, five of the six unions who work in the building, and the contractors who bring business into the Center; and stifles Convention and Visitor Bureau efforts to sign up future conventions.
My concerns at the Convention Center are clear: the labor/ management issues, the return of our customers and expansion. So, today I again call on Ed Coryell Sr. to solve those problems by signing the Labor Cooperation Agreement that E-consult and hospitality community leaders agree fixes the labor/ management problem and paves the way for the return of our customers, who could care less whether there are 13 or 15 members of the board.
I also call on House Majority Leader Joh
|