Is Philadelphia on the way to Pittsburgh?
This is a question we should all be asking... and it's not exactly about getting the best set of directions to the Three-River City.
As we recover from one of the most turbulent elections our city has seen, and begin to shift our eyes toward the challenges at hand, a glance westward in our own commonwealth may offer some troubling insights into the future.
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia share important commonalities. Pittsburgh was a major player in coal and steel when coal and steel were key components in building a national economy. Philadelphia enjoyed the prominence of industrial leadership and built a manufacturing industry that secured its place in economic growth. Both cities are haunted by the ghosts of economies past. They are both former industrial powerhouses that have lost their luster as the national populations have shifted toward the suburbs and Sunbelt.
Pittsburgh has three rivers that defined its boundaries and provided important modes of commercial transportation in yesteryear. Philadelphia has two, with similar historic significance. Both cities have long histories of troubled school districts that overspent and underperformed. Both cities enjoy major universities as their largest employers. Both cities have old ethnic neighborhoods that have seen better days, and increasingly needy indigenous populations.
A significant difference between our city and Pittsburgh is that Philadelphia is a city of the first class, a designation that refers to a legislatively defined category. This means that the county government and the city government "cross over," such that the city is the sum of the county parts. In Allegheny County, Pittsburgh is the biggest city, but the county also includes other townships. So county government is a separate governmental entity, with different taxing authority.
This difference may be the basis for Philadelphia not meeting Pittsburgh's fate -- yet.
Ten years ago, both cities had visionary mayors (Pittsburgh's Mayor Tom Murphy and Philadelphia's Ed Rendell). And during the economic "roaring '90s," both men advanced agendas to remake their cities into New Gothams, which included some similar components: new public-supported stadiums, which were critical to preserving the presence of the home teams; tax-increment financing (or TIFs) of large-scale construction and other real estate projects; new and expanded convention centers; downtown revitalization, including cool restaurants, more nightlife and arts and culture at the forefront. Both cities seemed to be on a roll.
That roll has come to a screeching halt in Pittsburgh, as the city edges toward bankruptcy. Pittsburgh's credit rating has taken a nosedive and now has reached junk bond status. Last month, Mayor Murphy, regarded by many as one of the most visionary leaders in urban growth, held a press conference in which he announced the layoff of almost 700 city employees... and no end in sight to the cuts.
This follows a difficult political season for Murphy, in which the City of Pittsburgh passed a budget with a $60 million hole in it. This reflected the fact that Murphy had only bad choices: even more massive cuts, including police and fire, or hope that he could persuade the Pennsylvania legislature, where he once served (full disclosure here: Tom Murphy served in the Pennsylvania House with my husband, Bob O'Donnell) to help him bail out the city. He had at least one significant card to play: he was an early Democratic primary supporter of former Mayor, now-Governor Rendell. Rendell, as a former Big City mayor, would understand and empathize with the dilemmas Murphy faced.
What Murphy needs is the authority to expand the taxable base, which must reach beyond the current $10 flat occupation tax toward something else... a wage tax on suburbanites working in the city. Predictably, Allegheny County legislators, Democrat and Republican alike, are not anxious to ask their constituents to pay more taxes, especially when they anticipate the probability of other tax increases to fund Rendell's education initiatives. And in order to achieve the ability to institute these taxes, the City of Pittsburgh must secure permission via legislation from the commonwealth that expands the city's capacity to levy additional taxes.
But no one anticipated the political morass that would emerge from the Harrisburg budget process in this legislative season. To date, Harrisburg has yet to come to an agreement on funding for the commonwealth school districts, which are now hurtling toward their own significant fiscal problems. There is criticism aplenty, across the bodies of the legislature, and shots fired across the bows of partisanship. Meanwhile, the City of Pittsburgh and Mayor Murphy face the significant troubles of an insufficient tax base to fund the most basic of city services.
Similarly, Philadelphia continues on the downward population trend, despite the Center City revitalization. At some point, the "break-even" between what we need and what we have is going to follow that downward trend.
So, before we find ourselves in the dilemma faced by Tom Murphy and the rest of the citizens of Pittsburgh, we better get good directions.
Donna Gentile O'Donnell is a Nursing Ph.D. candidate from Philadelphia.
