Postmortem on PGW deal: City Council forms a committee

Three months after effectively killing the Nutter administration's proposed sale of the Philadelphia Gas Works, City Council says it is ready to weigh other options for the utility's future.

Council voted Thursday to create a committee that will explore how PGW can expand, including partnership opportunities that President Darrell L. Clarke said had recently emerged.

Clarke in October announced that Council had decided not to hold hearings on the proposed $1.86 billion sale of PGW to Connecticut-based UIL Holdings Corp., a plan backed by Mayor Nutter. Clarke has said that PGW is a valuable asset and that selling it would be a mistake.

The mission of the newly formed committee, broadly charged with exploring energy opportunities in the city, is still vague. At a news conference last week where he announced plans to create the committee, Clarke said it would be tasked with "addressing and identifying and working with a significant number of" groups looking to partner with PGW.

Clarke has said he favors some kind of public-private partnership. Council's interest in such an arrangement has increased since a group of investors that lost out to UIL in the bidding, Liberty Energy Trust, began lobbying members to consider alternatives to an outright sale.

Nutter's spokesman, Mark McDonald, said Thursday that the mayor "is happy to work with Council on whatever ideas they come up with." McDonald stressed that there were pressing issues that needed to be addressed, including the replacement of nearly two-thirds of PGW's 3,024 miles of pipes considered "at risk."

It's not clear when the committee, which will be jointly chaired by Council members Bobby Henon and Marian B. Tasco, will issue a report.

Thursday's meeting, which was dominated by the resignation and farewell speech of Councilman James F. Kenney, who intends to run for mayor, also included these actions:

Councilman Kenyatta Johnson proposed a tax break for low-income families who enroll their children in state-accredited early-education programs.

Under the bill, a parent could be credited the entirety of what he or she paid in wage taxes, up to the amount spent on a qualifying early-education program. Those programs would include prekindergarten, nursery schools, or child-care facilities accredited through the state's Keystone STARS Performance Standards.

For a single parent earning $27,750 annually, the credit would be about $670, Johnson's office said.

"It is proven that early education has a direct correlation to a youth's chances at attending college, staying out of prison, and succeeding professionally," Johnson said in a statement. "That's why I want to make sure that low-income families have the same chance at providing early education for their children." His bill was referred to a committee for review. It has been reviewed by the city's Law Department.

Council appointed five people to a newly formed commission with authority to review and approve rate requests from the Water Department. Previously, the department's commissioner was able to approve rate changes autonomously.