Penn/Nutter Budget Forums: Impressions of a Farce
It seems the only mainstream coverage of the last night’s bduget forum, the first of four, is on one of the daily News’ blogs, which speaks to the growing irrelevance of Philadelphia Media Holdings.
From the outset, I’ve been concerned that the forums were going to be an exercise in predetermined outcomes, as a friend who witnessed a rehearsal explained via email earlier this month. By and large, at least by my experience, his predictions were accurate.
But first a word about the venue. This forum took place in northeast Philly, at St. Dominic’s Catholic School on the 8500 block of Frankford Avenue, an area extremely far away and pretty much accessible only by car. If you’re using public transit, you’d take te El to the easternmost terminal, paying extra for your transfer to the bus, which then drives nearly four miles up a state highway, and drops you off across the street from the school. Needless to say, there are no shelters for people waiting for the bus. So immediately a lot of people were disenfranchised simply because they couldn’t get up there. Homeless people have a right to participate too, considering the Homeless Services department is on the table, and the location of this forum rendered their presence effectively impossible. Same for those in wheelchairs, and many low-income and low-income elderly families.
At the same time, it was inspiring to see how many people came out to defend their city services, from the fireman passing out fliers to the library advocates to the Project HOME volunteers, to the individuals affiliated with no one who just wanted to have their say. Even more inspiring, at least in my group, was the keen bullshit meter this crowd had: nearly everyone recognized that what we were participating in was kabuki theatre, aimed at giving the appearance of real democracy while channelling people to specific outcomes.
We got there early to hand out Coalition to Save the Libraries fliers and to network with our friends and partners in this effort from various unions and interest groups. It was really cold, and the wind was blowing hard. A fireman handed me a pamphlet that read “MAYOR NUTTER IS PLAYING WITH FIRE AND YOU ARE AT RISK”, which explained that cuts to the fire department will mean longer response time to a burnign building. I shuddered as the wind cut across my face. “Ya know,” I said to the guy handing out the fliers, “On a day like this, a fire could spread like crazy.”
“Blocks,” he said. “Freakin’ blocks before we could get to it with these cuts.”
Images of Chicago came to my mind…
… and stayed with me the rest of the evening.
The doors were finally opened, and we all piled in to the auditorium, where we were handed an updated budget forecast but no actual budget to compare it to. A forecast is useless without providing the budget assumptions, the actuals, and last year’s numbers, so this document, which talked about problems in other cities, the falling GDP, consumer spending and the like was functionally useless for anything other than saying “boogedy boogedy.” There was nothing against which to balance the adminsitration’s claims. Rob Dubow from the budget department talked about how the economic crash had hit our pension fund, but he never said that it was because banks that should have known better had made bad investments, and lost everything. In Dubow’s story, the crash just happened, as if by magic. Steve Agostino declared that the crisis was unprecedented since 1929, but never mentioned that Democrats and Republicans in DC spent the past 20 years systemiatically tearing down all the safeguards erected in the wake of the Depression to prevent this from happening. Really now, do we really have to start naming names? That might make you less willing to accept these cuts, and you might start calling for the state to -gasp- let us tax the banks!
We were also handed an 8-page “citizen worksheet” titled “Tough Times, Tough Choices Workshop.” It had a nifty doodle of Philadelphia’s skyline that was a little dated. Inside, four of the pages presented a menu of cuts and, to a much lesser extent, revenue sources. But a lot of options simply were not on the menu. For instance, even though it’s well-known that Verizon has a building valued at $5.6 million dollars in Center City that they pay npo taxes on, nowhere was there an item calling for the city to exercise PA State Act 55, which allows city and local governments to request payments from real-estate tax exempt organizations for the services they receive. I can understand why a small non-profit shouldn’t have to participate, but an entity like Verizon or Penn? Gimme a break: these companies are worth billions, and they should fork it over if they can pay.
Another problem was the way the choices were presented: for instance, for the police, we were given the options of reduce the budget by 10% or 20%, targeting mostly sworn officers. As one woman repeatedly pointed out, why not cut overhead and administrative redundancies? Or as I added, why not end the Chestnut Hill crime emergency?
Same with the prisons: cut the budget by 10% and reduce food, maintenance, and job training for inmates, or cut the budget by 20%, close a prison, with no contracts to house prisoners outside the city, releasing 1200 inmates. There was nothing about sentencing nonviolent drug users to rehab, or just hitting them with big civil fines.
Courts, we got one option; reduce the budget by 20%: nothing about forcing the state’s hand, the entity legally responsible for the courts. And on and on it went, until finally exasperated i told the moderator, “I don’t know if I can participate in this: you keep talkign about this as a menu, but if this were for a restaurant, y’all would be out of business!” And it wasn’t that none of the items were appetizing (of all the choices, only two proposals appealed to me: stop maintaining Lincoln Field, and cut L&I’s budget by 30%), but because none of the items reflected what the customers wanted. It was like inviting a vegetarian to a Texas Barbeque.
“Sir if you don’t want to participate, you can just leave,” said one of the moderators.
“Oh no, I’m not leaving,” I said. “Someone’s gotta bear witness to this joke of a process.”
But then another guy, an older man who looked ablout 70 or so named Phil piped up. “You;re forcing us to make these choices form a position of ignorance,” he complained.
“No we’re not,” replied the moderator.
“yes you are,” Phil retorted. “None of us have seen the entire budget, we don’t know what the numbers are!”
“The budget is too big to absorb in one night,” the moderator replied, “so we brought selected items.”
“Yes exactly,” shot back Phil. “We don’t know what this all costs, and what you left out. This is only YOUR choices, we don’t get to see everything.”
“Phil is RIGHT!” I called out. “You are totally right Phil!”
“And what you want us to do,” Phil added, glaring at the moderator, “you want us to sign off on these cuts nobody wants, and then when the mayor says what he’s cutting he’s going to say ‘these aren’t my cuts, these are the cuts Philadelphians want, the one’s they chose. we don’t choose any of these, you’re forcing us to choose things we don’t want!”
“Sir…” And then the mod ploughed ahead. that seemed to be his primary concern: reining in discussion and making sure people didn’t get away from the very narrow choices they’d provided us. No coloring outside the lines, children. Stay in the box we’ve built for you.
Throughout the rest of this fake discussion, this soviet-style exercise in potemkin democracy, people interjected. We barely covered 60% of the budget deficit. the whole exericse was disgraceful, demoralizing, and infuriating. It only made me want to go back for round two.
I saw my neighbor Glenn walk by, and scurried out to the hall to see what was up. He’d finally thrown up his hands and walked out of his group, declaring the whole act to be bullshit. I wanted to leave too, but forced myself to sit through the rest of the whole pathetic charade.
After our time was up, I headed out to the main room, where the organizers were trying to call people to order. i caught up with Chris Satullo. I tried to tell him how much I objected to these forums.
“I don’t feel like anyone’s reall had a choice to be heard,” i said. “We’re choosing from options we had no inputb in selecting, and many of the things we want aren’t even on the table!”
“You are a cynic!” Satullo, who has never met me, declared, adding “and that makes you a perfect Philadelphian.”
“No wwait a minute,” I said. “That’s not true. I’m a 38 year old man, a parent, I work in a nonprofit, and I pay my mortgage and taxes. I’m not a cynic, I’m a realist.” I tried to bring up some of the stuff we’d talked about in the groups like payment in lieu of taxes, ending the useless crime emergency, etc., but Satullo was having none of it.
Finally, I said “Listen Chris. I know you’re not a wealthy guy, you got a job in the newspaper industry and you’ve done well for yourself. And look we know who caused this problem with the pensions: it’s the bansk, most of who are insolvent, but nobody wants to admit it. They made bad bets with the pension fund money and lost it all. And now thousands of Philadelphians, working people who play by the rules, we have to bear the burden for their mistakes? I never gambled on Wall Street. I never tried to make an extra buck off my mortgage. And for ordinary working people to have to lose their services because Dick Fuld and Ken Lewis and all those other CEOs can’t run a business.. sir, that is not just, an dit is not fair.”
And Chris Satullo, journalist, who just a moment ago told me I was a cynic, shrugged his shoulders, turned his back, and walked away.
Which kind of serves as an analogy for this whole fake process.
February 14th, 2009 at 1:22 am
[...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIt seems the only mainstream coverage of the last night’s bduget forum, the first of four, is on one of the daily News’ blogs , which speaks to the growing irrelevance of Philadelphia Media Holdings. From the outset, I’ve been concerned that the forums were going to be an exercise in predetermined outcomes, as a friend who witnessed a rehearsal explained via email earlier this month . By and large, at least by my experience, his predictions were accurate. But first a word about the venue. [...]
February 14th, 2009 at 1:37 am
[...] post by Brendan Calling and software by Elliott Back Categories: Uncategorized Posted By: Last Edit: 14 Feb 2009 [...]
February 15th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
[...] D. Kristof Blog … i want to spend the rest of my life everywhere, with everyone, one … Brendan Calling » Blog Archive » Penn/Nutter Budget Forums … All About Love Blog Tour Featuring Author Terra Little | APOOOStimulus As Seen Through Becker’s [...]
February 20th, 2009 at 9:55 am
[...] February 20, 2009 by Karen First we have major businesses there that won’t repay debts. Then there’s the businesses that don’t pay the taxes they should, both of which are causing massive budget shortfalls. Then there’s the mayor of the city (who doesn’t appear to like the people who live in parts of Philadelphia) who’s trying to correct the shortfalls by cutting services (libraries, community pools, police officer staffing & prisons) instead of collecting on the debts & taxes that could be taken from businesses who can certainly afford it. From someone who lives there & deals with this daily: http://brendancalling.com/2009/02/14/pennnutter-budget-forums-impressions-of-a-farce/ [...]
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:56 pm
[...] By Chris Satullo’s definition, it appears dave davies is a cynic: HAVE YOU PLAYED the Humpty-Dumpty Game yet? [...]
August 15th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
[...] This chap created an interesting post today on Brendan Calling Blog Archive Penn/Nutter Budget Forums …Here’s a short outlineWall-mounted model has an enamel finish. flexible, non-slip grip for easy Wall Mount model has a white. Zim Wall Mount Jar Opener- Swing Away Jar Opener from ActiveForever. Open or close all types of jars or bottle caps with this V-shape opener. Find dependable medical supplies, home medical equipment and more at great prices. The Zim Wall Mount Jar Opener is a rugged solid. Affix the ultimate restaurant-grade jar opener. Zim Wall Mount Jar Opener A17005 by- Zim Wall Mount Jar Opener- Kitchen Aids Our most popular jar opener opens them all! Wall-Mounted Opener Open jars, bottles or anything sealed with a. Zim Wall Mounted Jar Opener- Arthritis Aids 14.00. Open jars, bottles or anything sealed with a screw-cap, pry-up or friction, vacuum or crown top with these handy openers. The Zim Wall Mount Jar Opener enables you to open or close screw, pry-up. Wall Mount Bracket for Phillips HeartStart Onsite [...] [...]