Also this issue: Paint and Suffering Northern Ireland’s graphic, political murals inspire Philly’s Jane Golden to bring the cities’ artists together. -Jenn Carbin Love (Park) Is All They Need A diverse group lobby for skateboarders. -Daryl Gale Not Yet Over the Hill -Mary F. Patel The Bell Curve City Paper's weekly gauge of Philly's Quality of Life

May 22-28, 2003

city beat

Blackwell's About-face

by Daryl Gale

For more than a year now, City Council and Mayor John Street have been wrangling on the issue of city taxes; specifically, the wage and property taxes. At issue is the sense many Philadelphians have that the tax structure is a millstone around the neck of real progress: that because of the city’s sky-high wage taxes, far too many people choose to live and work outside the city; and because of the whopping property-tax increases, those remaining behind are looking for houses in the suburbs.

While that may be an oversimplification, the fact is that the mayor has vetoed every bill that's come across his desk asking for tax relief to the consternation of a great many taxpayers and not a few members of City Council. It's the mayor's position that the city's economy is not stable enough to support tax relief and that cutting taxes now will come back to bite us all in the ass when the bills come due down the road.

So, it's no surprise that when Councilman David Cohen's bill to progressively decrease the city's tax burden on the working poor went down in flames last week, the councilman was a bit steamed. What was surprising was how the bill was defeated and whose vote made the difference.

Bill No. 030163 narrowly passed by a vote of 11-5 on May 1, with Council members Darrell Clarke, Joan Krajewski, Brian O'Neill, Blondell Reynolds Brown and Frank Rizzo voting against it. The bill was sent to Mayor Street, who promptly vetoed it as he had earlier tax-relief legislation.

Then, at last Thursday's session, Council members had the option of voting to sustain the mayor's veto, or voting to override it and pass the bill despite Street's misgivings.

Councilmen Cohen and Angel Ortiz spoke at length and with great passion from the floor of Council chambers, imploring their colleagues to override the mayor's veto and strike a blow for the working poor.

"I want the Democratic Party to live up to its platform," Cohen bellowed. "Our party has made a promise to working people and we should live up to it. Our Democratic mayor has turned his back on the poor and working poor people of Philadelphia but I'm here to tell you that Philadelphia City Council should represent the people of this city, not the mayor."

Ortiz called Cohen's bill the "magic bullet for Philadelphia's economy" and railed against a political system that routinely offers tax breaks for the wealthy and politically connected while ignoring the crushing tax burden faced by the working stiff.

In their speeches, both Cohen and Ortiz invoked the name of the late City Councilman and Congressman Lucien Blackwell, who died in January. Blackwell, the councilmen said, would have loved Cohen's bill and would have been the first in line to sign on.

Cohen even brought up Blackwell's favorite allegory, the proverbial "little old lady" who can't pay bills and must decide between paying taxes and buying groceries or medicine. Ortiz said, "If Lu Blackwell were here he'd be standing up and waving his arms right now!"

Through it all, Blackwell's widow Jannie watched the proceedings quietly. Jannie now sits in Lucien's old seat and, of course, voted for Cohen's bill when it came up two weeks earlier. So Thursday, when the speechifying by Cohen and Ortiz was over and Council President Anna Verna called for the vote, the room went silent for a second as Jannie Blackwell raised her voice to say "Aye," meaning that she was sustaining the mayor's veto of the bill.

The override failed by a vote of 10-6. As it turns out, Jannie's about-face was even more significant since all the other members voted the same way they had initially.

"Jannie's vote was a real shocker," Cohen later said. "My bill was the only one targeting the poor and working people for relief so I just can't understand it."

Contacted at her office Monday afternoon, Jannie Blackwell said she changed her vote because she wants more time to look at tax relief, not because she's suddenly turned her back on the poor.

"I'm always for the poor," Blackwell said, "but we have to look at how these bills would impact the city's budget. We should step back and look at the big picture."

Okay, but what changed her mind since she voted in favor of the bill May 1?

"I support David Cohen's intentions and I think his heart is in the right place," she explained, "but somebody has to pick up the check. Every campaign season, every politician you can think of introduces a bill that would offer tax relief of some kind. We can't pass them all. I would say that I agree in principle with Cohen's bill and that's why I voted for it the first time, but I want a real discussion on tax reform, not campaign-season rhetoric."

Blackwell also intimated that part of the reason tax bills have gotten so much attention lately is to embarrass the mayor during an election season. She's right that Cohen, Ortiz and Michael Nutter, the chief protagonists on the tax-relief bills, also happen to be harsh critics of the Street administration. But for Cohen at least, this isn't about personalities or political one-upmanship.

"This isn't about the mayor," Cohen fumed. "This is about poor people. It's about the poor people who don't have the clout of his pay-for-play campaign contributors."

Cohen vowed to continue to make this a campaign issue for Street, hinting that he'll re-introduce the legislation after the summer break and well into campaign season. In fact, Cohen said, his new bill may be even more generous to the working poor.

After all, he said, he'd much rather piss off the mayor than the voters.

Daryl Gale’s weekly radio show, Dialogues, with co-hosts Rotan Lee and Bill Miller, is burning up the airwaves Fridays 7-10 a.m. on WURD (900 AM) in Philadelphia.