Does Jim Kenney’s budget redo really qualify as a plan for recovery?

May. 08, 2020

It may exist apocryphal, but Martin Luther King Jr. is said to have in one case observed that "budgets are moral documents." When a government spends taxpayer dollars on one thing and not another, afterward all, it is an expression of values.

Arguments over who and how much to tax, or whether to spend on armaments over food stamps, are substantially moral in nature. You can tell a lot nigh the beliefs of a society by its political budgets.

But that's not all that our public budgets connote. As upkeep guru Allen Schick has pointed out, budgets are also a type of strategic roadmap; they say, in effect, by spending money thusly, we will arrive at a shared vision. They are the link betwixt goal and mission accomplished.

That requires having a vision in the first place, of course. Which brings united states of america to Philadelphia, where, compared to peer cities, we appear to be lagging behind on both vision and budget.

A week agone, Mayor Jim Kenney proposed a revised budget in light of the Covid-19 crisis, and if we've learned anything it's that, rather than rise to the moment, our mayor has shrunk earlier it.

In other cities—from Chicago to San Francisco, from Houston to D.C.—citizens are freaking out about their future, merely like hither. Just in those cities, those who are worrying can at least have some condolement in the fact that a cross-section of their leadership form is on the instance…and has a programme.

Allow'southward recap. Amid plummeting revenue enhancement revenue due to the economic shutdown and soaring medical costs, the mayor and his director of finance, Rob Dubow, sequestered themselves to redo their record $five.2 billion budget. Even though, counterintuitively, they'd merely given unionized city workers a heighten, they promised significant pain and adverse furnishings on metropolis services.

By the time they came down from the mountaintop last week with the tablets upon which they'd impressed their revamped budget proposal, they were staring at an estimated $650 million hole.

They were not alone. Other cities find themselves in similarly dire circumstances and many accept already made hard choices. In Detroit, Mayor Mike Duggan announced the layoffs of seasonal employees and cut the pay and hours of ii,200 total-time city workers,and cut programs like Parks and Rec en route to enacting a 16 per centum budget cut—compared to Philly'southward xi percent.In Cincinnati, 1,700 city workers were furloughed. Miami and San Antonio went with a furlough/layoff combo. In Dayton, Ohio, Mayor Nan Whaley furloughed a quarter of her workforce.

Guess what none of these mayors did? Enhance taxes. Considering, when facing a near-Depression, when the long term goal is to stimulate growth, and when a citizenry is already strapped, longstanding economic tenets hold that any attempts to tax your mode back into prosperity are probable to exist regressive, past definition.

Simply Kenney zigged where other mayors accept zagged. While he has promised layoffs "in the hundreds" of both matrimony and non-unionized workers in a metropolis with roughly 25,000 employees, he has presented a revamped upkeep that protects much of the discretionary spending he's added over the class of his mayoralty, sparing programs like Pre-One thousand and customs schools while axing the funding of arts and culture programs.

At the aforementioned time, Kenney proposes raising in excess of $fifty million in new taxes, which doesn't even include a $68 one thousand thousand belongings tax hike in order to help fund the schoolhouse district. (To fully understand the mayor's budget proposal, City Controller Rebecca Rhynhart has released a cool interactive tool that lays it all out, and that begs the question: Why isn't the administration as transparent nigh its ain proposal as the Controller'south Office?)

While, in normal times, the mayor's proposal would qualify as a "balanced approach," every bit his chief of staff described it, these times are annihilation but normal. Nosotros're facing economical upheaval like we haven't seen in 90 years.

The existent question ought to be: Does the mayor's budget offer a blueprint that smartly positions Philadelphia for a speedy recovery when the world comes back?

Allow'south give the mayor a mulligan and urge him to humbly concede that he doesn't have all the answers, merely will empower those who practice. Or, improve yet, permit'south recruit a band of local patriots to step upwardly, practise a deep dive, and author and enact a true recovery plan for Philadelphia.

That would be a difficult no. You can almost hear the cynical and lazy thinking backside what feels like a hastily thrown-together budget: Permit'due south heighten the parking tax nonetheless once again—no one likes parking magnates! Or: Allow'southward heighten the wage tax on suburbanites—they don't vote here!

Information technology would exist asinine to raise taxes right at present on airlines, restaurants and hotels, right? That's why a sizable portion of the CARES Act is going to prop upward those industries, to give them a gamble to survive and recover. Not considering nosotros love airlines, but because we love jobs.

Well, shouldn't the aforementioned principles utilise locally? Nosotros might non like parking magnates and we might look down upon suburban stakeholders, merely don't we demand them to ultimately thrive? Take out the commuter from our local economic system, after all, and we're looking at becoming Detroit, circa 2013. Shouldn't Philadelphia's recovery plan exist all about helping businesses to reopen safely, and getting as many customers equally possible to flock to them?

Call back, budgets are more than P&L statements; they're also strategic roadmaps. But, every bit I outlined a couple of weeks ago, visionary thinking has never been the calling card of our mayor. Let's consider who likely weighed in on his underwhelming budget proposal: In addition to Kenney and Dubow, there'south Director Brian Abernathy, Principal of Staff Jim Engler, and Deputy Mayor of Labor Rich Lazor.

All are competent, committed public servants, even if, every bit a group, their whiteness and maleness is hit when it comes to the kitchen cabinet of a supposed progressive. Only what actually jumps out is their lack of variety of experience; none have individual sector chops, nor have any run whatever big arrangement otherwise.

Those in the mayor's ear don't have CVs steeped in innovation and data-informed experimentation. It feels pretty passe, doesn't information technology, this idea of urban center officials all gathering in a room and only talking to one another before, in their hubris, emerging with what they see as the answer?

That'southward why so many mayors elsewhere have done merely the contrary. They've convened the best and the brightest inside their communities to interact with elected officials on smart, information-driven strategies.

It's a new way to think nigh governing: As the product of cross-sector collaboration—more of a network than a government, with its turf wars, bureaucracy and trend toward summit-downwardly dictates. And information technology besides makes for smart politics, considering in the practice of what Bruce Katz and the belatedly, bang-up Jeremy Nowak called "horizontal leadership" in their volume The New Localism , lies constituency-building.

In announcing her group of bold-face up names, Bowser said, in upshot, that this was a one time-in-a-generation opportunity to not but reopen a metropolis, but to build a more equitable one.

So let's go on a travelogue of some example studies that stand in stark contrast to Jim Kenney's old-school approach, shall we?

First, a visit to my mayoral crush, Chicago's Lori Lightfoot. Terminal calendar month, she convened a Covid-19 Recovery Taskforce to advise metropolis regime on its economical recovery plans. It'southward co-chaired past Lightfoot and former White House Primary of Staff Sam Skinner and includes experts from private industry, governmental leaders, policymakers and customs-based partners. Critically, the taskforce is not staffed by government workers; it'southward staffed by Chicago'southward Civic Consulting Alliance, which dispatches nonprofit and concern leaders to work with local government, infusing the hierarchy with visionary planning and policy implementation experience.

In other words, Lightfoot hasn't staffed the task force with her political apparatchiks, simply she has gear up herself up to benefit politically. At present, unlike Kenney, her program for recovery isn't just her own. Information technology has the forcefulness of a public/private partnership, powered by civic leadership, backside it.

Out in San Francisco, Mayor London Breed and Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee created their own Covid-xix Economic Recovery Job Strength. It includes the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce and the Executive Manager of the San Francisco Labor Quango, and its mission is to focus like a laser beam on three recovery policy areas: Jobs and business support; vulnerable populations; and economical evolution.

In Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner appointed Marvin Odum to the position of "Recovery Czar" and gave the erstwhile Shell Oil CEO wide latitude to come upwards with solutions and strategies to become Houston'south economy moving once more. Odum has an impressive rails record, having overseen the city's recovery after Hurricane Harvey. He'll exist working in tandem with State Rep. Armando Walle, who is heading the recovery for Harris Canton; together, they're shepherding through plans for relief for small business owners and workers, and focusing on reinvigorating underserved areas.

Finally, Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser formed the Reopen DC Advisory Grouping, chaired by Ambassador Susan Rice and Michael Chertoff, onetime Secretary of the Section of Homeland Security. Two former D.C. mayors are too involved, as is the Johns Hopkins Center for Wellness Security. The group has already held a virtual town hall so citizens could weigh in on the strategy and values they'd like to see their authorities adopt.

In announcing her group of assuming-face names, Bowser said, in effect, that this was a in one case-in-a-generation opportunity to not just reopen a urban center, merely to build a more than equitable one. It was an encompass of the "never let a good crunch get to waste" mantra of Rahm Emanuel during the last great economic crunch.

And that brings us dorsum to Mayor Jim Kenney. By treating this moment every bit just some other P & L challenge—let's cut some from here, let's raise that amount in that location—we're in danger of missing an opportunity. The times call for more than just math.

The real question ought to be: Does the mayor's budget offer a blueprint that smartly positions Philadelphia for a speedy recovery when the earth comes back? That would be a hard no.

City Council has yet to weigh in on Kenney's proposal, but what are the chances that it brings the level of seriousness and vision the times demand? Our august legislative body suffers from the aforementioned maladies as the administration: The expletive of incrementalism, valuing the political over the reformative, an allergy to collaboration.

Case in betoken: When Council unveiled its ludicrous anti-poverty plan a couple months ago, (ludicrous in its goal of reducing poverty by 33 pct in 5 years, when the nation cheered New York's centre-opening 4 pct reduction), the head of a related prominent nonprofit told me they were chosen by Council President Clarke's office that morning and asked to attend the press briefing, having never weighed in or seen the plan. If our last, best hope for a smart recovery is the vision of Darrell Clarke, nosotros're screwed.

But possibly information technology's not likewise late. Let's give the mayor a mulligan and urge him to humbly concede that he doesn't take all the answers, but will empower those who do. Or, meliorate all the same, permit's not wait for the mayor to encounter the light. Allow's recruit a band of local patriots to step upwardly, do a deep dive, and author and enact a true recovery plan for Philadelphia.

I wrote this two weeks ago, and information technology'south more apropos now than then:

How cool would information technology be if, rather than Jim Kenney and Rob Dubow emerging this week with a upkeep of severe cuts, they strode onto the scene armed with a document informed past a diverse roster of local all-stars—everyone from private sector titans similar Comcast's Brian Roberts and Merck'south Ken Frazier to nonprofit visionaries like CHOP'due south Madeline Bell to activists similar Mural Arts' Jane Golden and maybe some emerging leaders we oasis't even heard of yet—that laid out a shared vision for how we tin can all accelerate, together?

In other cities—from Chicago to San Francisco, from Houston to D.C.—citizens are freaking out about their future, just like here. Merely in those cities, those who are worrying can at least take some condolement in the fact that a cantankerous-section of their leadership course is on the example…and has a plan.

Photograph illustration past Dan Shepelavy

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/incredible-shrinking-mayor-kenney/