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"WORKING TOGETHER"
FY15 BUDGET ADDRESS
THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2014
Good morning Council President Clarke, Council Leadership, members of City Council, my fellow elected officials from all branches of government service, members of our Administration, Mayor John Street and my fellow Philadelphians. I'd like to thank Reverend Shipman for his innovation, his leadership of his church, risen from the ashes and strong. And, a special thanks to Council President Clarke and his staff for all of the arrangements for today.
Before we get started today, I'd like to recognize the 2014 recipient of the Richardson Dilworth Award for Distinguished Public Service, Barbara Ash, a Law Department attorney in the Child Welfare Unit who works with an unparalleled sense of purpose and professionalism.
She has been a tremendous advocate for our great City's social workers and the children and families they serve. Let's give Barbara Ash a round of applause.
I'm sure Barbara, the members of City Council and thousands of other City employees would agree - public service is truly a calling, a vocation. Each of us answered that call and steadfastly serves our communities working together to shape the future of our City and the lives of every Philadelphian.
For nearly fifteen years I served as a member of City Council and for the last six years, I have proudly worked together with all of you as Mayor of this great City.
And so, I'd like to thank Council President Clarke and all of City Council for their partnership and leadership over the last six years. Working together, this City Council and our Administration achieved a great deal: we're attracting new business, creating jobs; we're safer, greener and growing in our population and economy.
In just the last two years, working together, we transformed the City skyline with more than $7.5 billion worth of recently announced, under construction or completed projects, including Comcast's Innovation and Technology Center, a new $1.2 billion development project we announced last month.
Working together, we reformed Philadelphia's inaccurate and unfair property tax system into an accurate, understandable and fair system that used industry best practices to complete the first city-wide property reassessment under the Actual Value Initiative.
Working together, Council President Clarke, Councilwoman Quinones Sanchez and our Administration created a better system for the disposition of vacant land and properties - making Philadelphia the largest City in the nation to have a Land Bank.
Working together, we re-wrote the City's zoning code and created the City's first comprehensive plan, Philadelphia 2035.
Working together, we've lowered wage and business taxes, bringing the resident wage tax below 4% for the first time since the 1970s and we will continue to work together to lower the wage and business taxes, while providing a range of exemptions and incentives to make Philadelphia a more attractive place for businesses to start here, stay here and grow here.
Working together, we're transforming thousands of acres of long-neglected waterfronts on the Central Delaware and the Lower Schuylkill with dynamic plans that reclaim former industrial land.
Working together, City Council President Clarke, the Fairmount Park Conservancy and our Administration have agreed to move forward with the sale of the Love Park garage and construction of a new JFK Plaza/Love Park. And the renovation of Dilworth Plaza - the People's Plaza - will be completed this fall.
Working together, our Administration with Council's active support has increased diversity in City business participation. We have consistently surpassed our goal with regard to the percentage of city contracts with minority, women and disabled-owned contractors. In 2013, we reached 28% participation, encouraging us to raise our participation target to 30% for FY15.
A year before we began our partnership, in 2007, homicides in Philadelphia claimed the lives of 391 citizens. In 2013, we had 247 homicides - the lowest homicide count since 1967. It's a decrease of 38% since 2007 and 26% lower than 2012. Overall, violent crime is down 15% compared to 2012.
But we all agree, one life lost or damaged because of violence is one too many. That's why we will remain focused on reducing violence among young people through the Youth Violence Reduction Collaborative and the Department of Justice's National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention.
And we must maintain our commitment and determination regarding homicides and shootings involving Black men and boys through our work around Black Male Engagement, the Mayor's Commission on African American Males and the national organization called Cities United, which was recently recognized by President Barack Obama during the launch of his "My Brother's Keeper" initiative last week.
In 2013, for the second year in a row, civilian fire fatalities were at an all-time low. Unfortunately, we did suffer the loss of one of Philadelphia's finest firefighters, Battalion Chief Michael Goodwin last year. We pray for his family and all the families that have suffered the loss of loved ones from fire or violence.
In 2007, our high school graduation rate was 53% and the number of Philadelphians with a four-year college degree was 18%. In 2008, we all committed ourselves to turning the tide on poor educational outcomes. Today, our high school graduation rate is 64%, an improvement of 11 percentage points - and our college degree attainment rate is nearly 25%. Progress? Yes, but we know we have much more to do.
And, our population has grown every year since 2007, as affirmed by the 2010 Census, and we'll show growth in 2013 for the seventh straight year as well - attracting a diverse group of new residents: empty nesters, immigrants and Millennials. In fact, no major city in the nation has experienced a larger percentage growth in the population of young people than Philadelphia.
I also want to point out that our strong fiscal management, our careful financial stewardship, our ability to work together and make tough budget decisions, is the reason Standard & Poor's gave Philadelphia its highest rating ever with an "A+" municipal credit rating. And for the first time since the 1970s, all three major rating agencies placed us in the "A" category.
That's just a small portion of what our Administration and City Council have achieved,
working together. And, I know we will add more accomplishments to that list through our continued partnership.
Today, my proposed FY15 budget builds on our collective track record of fiscal responsibility and strategic investment. It includes investments that support our City of Philadelphia as we continue on the path to prosperity. It makes targeted investments for our children and adult citizens, in our neighborhoods and in public safety. This budget continues the incremental Wage Tax reductions that we restarted last year to bolster economic growth.
This budget proposes no tax increases for the City's General Fund. Let me repeat that, there are no tax increases for the general fund in our City budget proposal. But, there are tax revenue issues related to funding public education that must be addressed and I'll discuss those shortly.
And, we still have a variety of other challenges: Our total tax revenue in FY15 as compared to FY 14 is down about $41 million, which translates to 1.5% below FY14's projections. This projected decrease for FY15 is due to the expiration of the 1% Philadelphia Sales Tax and reforms in the Business Income and Receipts Tax.
This budget, which balances lower tax revenue projections with rising employee costs, takes a prudent approach to addressing both the long-term challenges we face and the immediate needs of our citizens and City departments.
Just last night, District Council 47 overwhelmingly ratified an 8-year contract agreement
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