CITY COUNCIL TESTIMONY

Friday, May 8, 2009

Presented By: Louise Carpino, President AFSCME Local 810, District Council 47

Good afternoon, President Verna and members of City Council. My name is Louise Carpino and I am testifying on behalf of the Coalition for Essential Services. The Coalition has offered specific principles concerning maintaining City services and funding those services through fair and balanced taxes. Our flyers with specific proposals have been distributed to Council Members.

I would like to emphasize the need for City Council to pass a budget which is fully funded by taxes and other fees over which the City has control. Our Coalition is very concerned about the City’s reliance on an increased sales tax as the major source of revenue to fund the 2010 budget in both proposed budgets whether it is the Mayor’s or City Council’s. Since the state budget with any enabling legislation is not likely to be passed until the end of June and the City budget is due to be acted upon by the end of May, the Coalition is very concerned that any City Council budget action without approval by the state authorizing the 40 year pension amortization or sales tax increase would permit the Mayor to enact a contingency budget with massive cuts in City services, including layoffs of employees providing those necessary services and would create untold harm to the citizens of Philadelphia. The Mayor, Council Members and citizens have said that tax increases should be fair and equally shared. However, there has not been discussion about rolling back business tax or wage tax reductions. We believe legislation was introduced on May 7th concerning business and wage taxes. We welcome that legislation and would encourage City Council to enact rollbacks in those reductions, reductions which have created the loss of $1.2 billion in revenues since fiscal year 2000. This is roughly the deficit the Mayor states the City faces over the next five year.

We ask that all options for fair taxation be considered so that City services can be restored to their former level, no cuts in services occur, and those who can best afford to pay taxes pay their fair share.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.