Busting open the budget

LAST WEEK, I saw an interesting exchange:

It was about 9 p.m., and Clay Armbister, the mayor's chief of staff, and one of the more powerful (and pinstriped) people in city government, was standing in the hallway of Mastery Charter School in Germantown explaining how state law affects the wage tax to a middle-aged woman in jeans and a sweatshirt.

I'd already been to two of these worshops, so the sight wasn't that unusual - until I tried to picture David L. Cohen, Mayor Rendell's chief of staff, spending his evening talking with a citizen. That's when I realized we may be on the verge of a revolution here.

We've come a long way, and not just because members of the Nutter administration are talking to the public about the fiscal crisis. A year ago, when the Daily News launched "It's Our Money" in partnership with WHYY, we dreamed - but could never imagine - that crowds of Philadelphians would flock to events about the budget.

Enter the financial crisis.

Over the last two weeks, more than 1,000 Philadelphians have crowded into gyms and classrooms to debate the city's spending priorities. (The last event is tonight at 6, 2251 N. 54th St.) These forums, organized by the Penn Project for Civic Engagement and WHYY, let participants rate possible spending cuts and revenue increases that the city could use to fix the deficit facing local government. (Both "It's Our Money" and the workshops are funded by the William Penn Foundation, though we weren't involved in the workshops.)

I was skeptical. I wondered how productive the conversations would be and if the Nutter team would really listen. I don't know the answer to the second part, but there was enough of a structure to the conversations that it was far more than a bunch of people screaming.

For the first time, city residents were given the opportunity to comment on budget options before the mayor announced his plan, and they stepped up. They were thoughtful and smart. Young, old, black and white turned out. We won't see the results until the mayor unveils his budget on March 19, but a number of things struck me.

The age of indifference is over. The workshops were held on weeknights in midwinter. Still, hundreds of people packed into rooms to debate the budget. It's hard to get that many people for any kind of political event, but it's particularly stunning for something as opaque as city finances.

Many were union members and activists, but several people told me this was the first event about government they'd ever attended.

People are willing to make sacrifices. There were a few conspiracy theorists, but most people understood that the global economic meltdown is causing the local fiscal crisis. People talked repeatedly about the sacrifices they were making in their personal lives and extended that to city government.

Many seemed reluctant to tax businesses, but there was a lot of support for raising the wage tax, real-estate tax, or charging for trash collection. No one wanted to decimate any department or service, but there was also a recognition that cuts will have to be made.

Philadelphians want a revolution. Over and over, people kept bringing up ideas that weren't included in the worksheets distributed by the organizers. I heard several groups discuss the idea of releasing nonviolent drug offenders to save on prison costs. Folks also suggested marching on Harrisburg to get them to pick up the cost of the courts. The biggest shocker? People in South Philly discussing the idea of using volunteer firefighters.

Of course, it will take more than a few workshops to alter the political culture in Philadelphia. But for too long, the budget has been an insider's game, insulated from the public. Those in power use their understanding of the process to shield it from the rest of us. If more people start understanding how the budget really works, they will feel more agency in participating in the debate. The idea of not only exposing the budget but actually asking for their opinion could be the most subversive thing ever. *

Ben Waxman reports for "It's Our Money," a joint project of Daily News and WHYY, funded by the William Penn Foundation. Reach him at waxmanb@phillynews.com.