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MAYOR'S BUDGET ADDRESS - JOHN F STREET - JANURY 2006
DELIVERED 1-24-2006 TO CITY COUNCIL
Good morning President Verna, Majority leader Blackwell, Majority Whip Tasco, Minority Leader O'Neill, Council members, distinguished guests, and friends -
I am truly honored to stand before the distinguished legislative body of the next great city in America - The Philadelphia City Council.
I am here today to present for your consideration my proposed __________ General Fund operating budget, my proposed capital budget and program along with my proposed Five Year Financial Plan for FY 07 through 11.
In its October 2005 edition, the prestigious magazine National Geographic Traveler called Philadelphia the next great city in America, saying: "After decades of relative obscurity, Philadelphia, a classic American city, is ready to step back into the national limelight." Philadelphia has recovered from the economic distress that held this city hostage when Ed Rendell became Mayor and I became President of City Council in 1992, a partnership that provided strong cooperative political leadership at a critical juncture in this city's history. That recovery gained an identity with the opening of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and the Marriott Hotel in 1993. These and other investments transformed Philadelphia into a top tier destination city. A city where visitors stay in first class hotels, eat at some of America's finest restaurants, see live performances at World Café or Rotunda, and enjoy the museums and public art along the Parkway. We also flawlessly hosted the Republican National Convention, the X-Games and the Live 8 concert attended by hundreds of thousands of people from throughout the country. No doubt our City has the capacity to host the international Olympics games. (By the way, March Madness returns to the Wachovia Center as the Atlantic 10 Conference hosts the 2006 NCAA Division 1 men's basketball tournament first and second rounds.)
During the early 1990s, Philadelphia's signature corporations, Comcast, GlaxoSmithKline, Rohm & Haas, Aramark, and PNC made important long-term commitments to stay in this city. Equally as important has been the development of small-to-mid-sized technology based businesses at the Navy Yard, Keystone Innovation Zone and the University City Keystone Innovation Zone which provide opportunity to grow small businesses, further contributing to the City's vibrant economic future. The growth and renewal of Center City has been an enormous benefit to all. (PAUSE) My commitment always has been to turn our attention to neighborhoods without turning our backs on Center City.
But as you know, at heart, I am a neighborhood mayor. Philadelphia has always been known as a city of neighborhoods. The courage and passion of long-term residents is infectious and a source of great personal satisfaction for me and I dare say most members of this Council. Together we have created a new look, a new spirit and a better quality of life in neighborhoods. We have invested in neighborhood recreational centers, libraries and other critical public facilities. Under our Neighborhood Transformation Initiative we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to demolish dangerous buildings, clean and green vacant lots and build much needed housing. Market rate and affordable housing developments are blooming throughout our city like daffodils on a warm spring day. Thousands of housing units have been completed since 2000. Westrum's Brewerytown development is transforming an entire North Philadelphia neighborhood and the Toll Brothers development at the Naval Home is walking the delicate line between historic restoration and housing rehabilitation on a project I once thought might never happen. The Philadelphia Housing Authority has developed the finest public housing in America. (Carl Greene, please stand!)
We are dramatically changing the face of housing in this city for poor, middle-income and upper income families. The success required the persistence of a diverse group of leaders including Sister Mary Scullion, Pat DeCarlo, Kenny Gamble, John Westrum, Joe Zuritsky, Bob Toll and many critical but lesser-known citizens, churches, CDCs, and civic associations. I thank them and each of you for your efforts. (PAUSE)
Over the past several years, this Administration with your support has made unprecedented investments in children and youth. We have dramatically expanded prevention services, by investing approximately 80 million dollars to create, among other things, a network of over 150 new afterschool programs located at schools, churches and recreation centers, serving approximately 40,000 children. Twenty-three school based beacon programs provide safe havens for hundreds of children and families, nine teen centers offer a wide range of activities for high risk teens, and our youth job training and employment programs are reaching many more. We have enhanced our recreation centers by adding 120 afterschool programs and by creating spray parks, which delight our youngsters with safe summer water play.
We have strengthened fragile families by investing more than $17 million dollars to create innovative parenting programs and home visitation services, reaching over 4,000 families. We invested $5 million dollars to establish a Child Care Health and Safety Fund to support capital improvements in child care facilities. A lead abatement strike team was established to enhance our efforts to eliminate lead hazards that threaten our young children.
These historic investments are working. The infant mortality rate in Philadelphia has fallen by 20% since 1997. The number of children with age appropriate immunizations increased for the second straight year; child abuse cases are 35% lower than in 1996. The number of children testing positive for lead poisoning was cut in half between 1999 and 2002, even though the number of children tested for lead increased over the same period by 45%. There has been an 11% decrease in the number of juveniles arrested for major crimes and births to unmarried teenagers are down 7% since 1999.
We are proud of the continuum of prevention programs that we have initiated, and encouraged by the results we are seeing. We remain committed to maintaining, and ultimately expanding, these programs so that every child in Philadelphia can have the supports needed to reach his full potential.
But while we celebrate the progress, we also understand there is much more work to do.
We remain alarmed by the tragic deaths resulting from co-sleeping that have plagued families throughout our region; co-sleeping is practiced primarily because families cannot afford to purchase cribs for their newborns. To alleviate this problem, we are proposing an additional $250,000 to the Maternity Care Coalition's Cribs for Kids program to ensure that every family in need receives this critical assistance.
And while the number of juveniles involved in major crimes is down significantly, homicides in general and certainly for young people, have increased over the past couple of years.
In addition to preserving and expanding our prevention programs, we are expanding, with financial assistance from both the state and federal government, our highly successful Youth Violence Reduction Partnership. We are about to enter our fifth police district. This program has demonstrated extraordinary success in reducing the number of young victims of homicide. However, to reach a younger group of potential victims and perpetrators of violence, we will soon launch a citywide Adolescent Violence Reduction Partnership. The AVRP program will provide intensive services to high risk children between the ages of 10 and 15, in an attem
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