Philly’s Budget Shortfall: Time for Corporations to Step Up and Give Back.
As you all know, I work as a grant writer. It’s a great job: I get to put my writing skills to the test by asking individuals, foundations, and corporations for money for important social programs like GED classes and English as a Second Language/civics classes that help immigrants integrate into American society and earn more money. It’s always gratifying to see the smiles when another $25,000 grant rolls in, knowing the good the money will do. But the thing is, for a lot of the corporations we host here in Philadelphia, many of who enjoy significant tax breaks to locate here, $25,000 is a drop in a very large bucket. If Comcast, Sunoco, Verizon, and many more can be said to rake in billions, they give out charitable donations a leaf at a time.
As Philadelphians learned last week, our economy is in shambles and the mayor is shutting 62 of 73 pools and 11 libraries to save money (warning, pdf). My neighborhood like so many others is taking a hit: we’re losing a library, a pool, and a sprayground. A few days ago, I wrote:
it’s not his fault. It’s the fault of the GOP and our Senator, Arlen Specter.
The budget reductions were caused by a variety of factors, all of which can be traced to GOP policies supported by the senior senator. The stock market collapse and the frozen capital market are the clearest examples, brought on by decades of deregulation, all supported by Arlen Specter who has voted in favor of every single deregulatory scheme proposed by the GOP, including the disaster known as the credit default swap.
Reduced revenue? Some of that may be blamed on Philadelphia’s shrinking population, but mainly it’s because of the Bush tax cuts, which senator Specter supported.
The other night I met the Mayor and asked him how much it costs to run a city pool for the summer. His answer was “$50,000.” Closing down these pools, I quickly realized, is what a friend of mine last night called “chump change”: 63 pools only adds up to a little over $3 million dollars, which hardly patches the hole we’re facing. It’s also cruel to children and a public safety hazard: Philadelphia’s children are armed, and when it gets hot tempers flare easily.
I’ll be calling his office later today to offer my assistance in tracking down grants, but preliminary research isn’t promising: most foundations work with 501(c)(3) nonprofits, which the city is not. One of my funding contacts suggested I contact the corporate sector.
And that’s when I began to think about corporate profits versus corporate citizenship. Even in hard times, a company like Verizon has money to spare:
Verizon Communications Inc. said Monday earnings rose 31% in the third quarter as wireless did better than expected, while its traditional phone business continued to decline.
The country’s second largest telecommunications company, after AT&T Inc., earned $1.67 billion, or 59 cents per share, up from $1.27 billion, or 44 cents a share, a year ago.
Revenue rose 4.1% to $24.7 billion.
Excluding charges for job cuts and merger costs, Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) earned 66 cents per share, matching the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. They were expecting $24.52 billion in revenue.
If just 3 corporations contributed a little over a million dollars to the city that’s given them tax breaks and allowed them to build giant skyscrapers all over the place, we wouldn’t have to close the pools. Has the mayor asked them? I don’t know, but I’m going to be asking. A lot of Philadelphians will point out that our tax structure discourages companies from locating here and that city government is scared to ask them for money. But the other night, I met many of the movers and shakers from some of the most powerful and well-heeled corporations in town. These are people who can afford to give back in the millions, not petty donations of $20,000, which is a fraction of my salary.
For the past eight years, corporations have benefited from government largesse at the federal and state level in so many ways. It’s time for these companies to step up to the plate and to mitigate the hit the rest of bus are taking. Comcast, Verizon, Unisys, Smith-Kline-Beecham should be contributing at a much higher level than they are now. Our city is in trouble, and as the saying goes, “to whom much is given, much is required.” Pony up, guys.
November 12th, 2008 at 10:36 am
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November 13th, 2008 at 11:30 am
This could be one interesting way to have your (really excellent) ideas considered by the Mayor, in public no less:
Here’s your chance to ask the Mayor about the budget cuts. On the next It’s Our City TV show that airs November 21 at 10 p.m. we’ll interview Mayor Nutter. Email us at city@whyy.org before midnight on November 14th to have your question considered.