EDITORIAL: Issues separate Katz, Street

Republican Sam Katz and John Street, his Democratic opponent, are remarkably similar in some respects. But the two begin from very different premises about the role of government: Katz has emphasized the need to retain those citizens who have the opportunity to leave the city. Street has championed the need to serve those citizens who cannot go anywhere else. This disagreement shines through in the stances each has taken on the issues which ultimately separate their campaigns: Education and the city's morbid economy. " Ultimately, hopes of educational improvement center largely on two goals: an improved, performance-based contract with the teacher's union and increased state-level funding for the city's schools. Both mayoral candidates and the union, at least in principle, have concurred on the need to emphasize performance over seniority in a new contract for the city's teachers. Unfortunately, securing higher levels of funding has proven more complicated. The state legislature has repeatedly said that additional funding will be forthcoming only if Philadelphia agrees to adopt school vouchers -- tuition subsidies for parents who choose to send their children to private schools. But the idea that vouchers will force public schools to improve or risk losing all of their students is foolish. Vouchers only help students whose families can afford to pay even part of a private school's tuition while gutting public classrooms of students who stand to be steadying influences. What of those students who remain behind? Sam Katz supports compromising with vouchers. John Street opposes vouchers and promises to attempt what outgoing Mayor Ed Rendell once did -- threatening to close the city's schools if funding is not increased. What voters must decide is which man is more likely to come to his senses -- is Street more likely to be persuaded of the virtues of compromise or Katz of the evils of vouchers? " As Rendell once noted, the Philadelphia he inherited was like a cancer patient with a gunshot wound. Eight years later, the bleeding has been staunched. But the next mayor needs to cure the city's chronic lack of economic vitality and start bringing people back to Philadelphia. Cutting the punitively high city wage tax is a necessary first step. But the wage tax produces over $900 million in annual revenues for the city. Philadelphia cannot afford to cut into those revenues too quickly without suffering a potentially devastating loss of city services. John Street wants to cut the wage tax from 4.6 to 4.4 percent over the next five years. Sam Katz would cut it further, to 4 percent. That would cut about $250 million, or 10 percent, from the city's annual revenues. Katz believes he can cut the needed 10 percent from the cost of city services simply by making them more efficient. But that seems highly unlikely -- such a cut would doubtless impair city services instead. But wage tax reductions are only a part of the answer to the city's economic woes. The next mayor's greatest challenge is convincing companies that Philadelphia is business friendly and providing them with the opportunities and incentives they need to compete. The city needs to incubate and attract businesses in the neighborhoods and in Center City; both at the level of multinational corporations and of small businesses. Philadelphia must aggressively pursue private-public partnerships and neighborhood-based small business initiatives, tactics that have been highly successful elsewhere. And to succeed, the city needs to identify areas in which Philadelphia can become a leader. Creating an economic identity is an important part of any recipe for success. Katz has made a career as a successful businessman and has been involved in revitalizing Baltimore's harbor and Cleveland's downtown, proof of his progressive outlook on economic issues. Street is Rendell's acknowledged partner in the Center City successes of the last eight years and a seasoned veteran of city politics, a career marked by his battles to preserve Philadelphia's traditional economic foundations. Voters must decide which man is better positioned to convince businesses to trust the city enough to call it home. In a race this close, each Philadelphian has the opportunity to play a decisive role in shaping the city's future. Think carefully about which candidate you believe is better-suited to address these issues. And, for once, set aside doubts about the efficacy of any one vote. In this election, it just might make all the difference.