Shot Callers

We shouldn't be the pawns of anybody's lobby.

by Isaiah Thompson

I know who you didn't vote for on Tuesday: Big Bag, Big Beverage, Big Tobacco. So why are they calling the shots around here?

Last year, when Councilmembers Frank DiCicco and James Kenney proposed a ban on non-compostable plastic bags at grocery stores and pharmacies, lobbyists descended en masse upon City Hall. Lo and behold, support for the bill evaporated, and the Council members gave up, proposing instead that all big-box stores host plastic recycling bins — a "solution" supported wholeheartedly by Big Bag, which can keep churning out its products.

Last Thursday, the Philadelphia City Council passed out of committee a new tax on certain tobacco products. It seemed to be a victory over Big Tobacco — until the American Lung Association in Pennsylvania released a statement on Monday pointing out that Council's tax on the weight (versus price) of tobacco products is exactly what Big Tobacco wants: a tax that doesn't increase with inflation, and that effectively decreases with time.

Then there's the soda tax. No sooner did Mayor Michael Nutter announce that he wanted to tax sugary beverages than Big Beverage rose from the ground, gnashing its diamond teeth and hiring a small army of lobbyists to kill the tax dead. Last Thursday, Council leadership declined to vote the tax out of committee. Which brings me to yet another lobby: The mayor's. Council may face pressure from lobbyists, but it's also getting pushback from constituents. Much of the soda tax's support comes from the mayor himself, and he's resorting to increasingly hardball tactics to get it passed.

Earlier this week, the operators of programs and shelters for the homeless got an e-mail from Office of Supportive Housing Director Dainette Mintz asking them to be present for May 20's Council meeting, where — by the time you read this — the soda tax's fate may or may not have been decided. The connection between homeless shelters and the soda tax might not be obvious, but the letter's implication, many felt, was. Service providers are often asked to support for the mayor's overall budget, but a particular tax? "That's unusual," one provider told me privately.

Maybe politics is politics, but, after years of funding cuts, Philadelphia's homeless providers represent some of the most cash-strapped services in the city — and for its most needy and vulnerable citizens. They shouldn't be the pawns of anybody's lobby, and neither should we.