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Dead woman walking

  By 2008

Some notes on the Presidential Race 1.Hillary is over and has been for at least a month. It is impossible for her to close the delegate gap. So, to win, super-delegates would have to decide to support her in one of two ways. They might, first, simply hand her the nomination against the will of the majority of the delegates. Or, second, they could change the rules in a way that gives Hillary the majority of regular delegates by, say, seating overwhelmingly pro-Clinton delegations from Michigan and Florida. The first path is manifestly undemocratic. The super-delegates might get away with this without too much complaint from the Obama supporters and the broader public if there were broad agreement that Obama is somehow too flawed to be President or far less likely to defeat McCain than Clinton. But, in the absence of an utterly unforeseeable event, that is just not going… Continue reading

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The BPT: the bane of Philadephia

  By Humor, Philadelphia, Taxation

When I worked for SEIU I was limited in what i could blog. So I wrote this under an assumed name for Young Philly Politics. Before citing it, please read the note at the end. You would think that, with the Nutter administration securing a substantial victory on tax policy, talk of the “job-killing business tax” would be on the decline. Continue reading

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Encouraging news from SEPTA

  By Transportation

That is the title for a blog post I’ve wanted to use for years. SEPTA has named a consumer advocate, Kim Scott Heinle, who is going to focus on msking the agency “available, responsive, honest and open.” Details are here: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20080425_SEPTA_names_customer_advoc…. I was a little skeptical of the appointment of an insider, Joe Casey, to replace Faye Moore as General Manager of SEPTA, although I said at the time that I have found most of the SEPTA managers I’ve worked with to be honest and responsive individuals who seem caught up in a system that too often was unresponsive and prone to dissembling. I knew Joe Casey just a little but he seemed like a decent guy. Now I’m really happy a to say that Casey is starting out very well. This move, along with others he has made, shows that he understands how frustrated people are in their daily… Continue reading

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Waiting For Health Care: Doctors and patients need state action on health and malpractice insurance

  By Health Care

I wrote this for Dr. Valerie Arkoosh to sign. It was published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on April 16, 2008 I am a physician. And like so many other physicians in Pennsylvania, I’m waiting for the General Assembly to restore the MCare abatement program. MCare was set up to reduce medical malpractice premiums, which had risen to the point that physicians were leaving the state in droves. Since 2002, physicians in Pennsylvania have purchased half of their required malpractice insurance from the MCare program and the other half from private insurers. Most physicians get back half of their MCare costs while those of us in high-risk specialties receive a full abatement. But the abatement program expired in December and bills for MCare are due at the end of this month. While we doctors wait for our abatements, about 750,000 adults in Pennsylvania, most of whom work full time, also are… Continue reading

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Small Businesses and Health Care

  By Health Care

I wrote this piece for two small business owners to sign. It was originally published on 2008-04-02 in the Philadelphia Daily News By PETER HANDLER & KAREN SINGER NOBODY will benefit more from HB 2005, the health-insurance reform bill now wending its way through the state Legislature, than the commonwealth’s small businesses. Yet the official lobbyists in Harrisburg for small business – the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses – are fighting to block it. Continue reading

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Help get health care moving in Harrisburg

  By Health Care

The members of the Pennsylvanian’s United for Affordable Health Care and the Pennsylvania Health Access Network met with policy staff of the Rendell Administration and the policy chair of the Democratic caucus, Todd Eachus last week. From what we heard, the administration and the caucus are working together to forge a bill to extend health insurance to most of those with out it. The bill has a chance of being passed by the House of Representatives this year—that’s right, before the session ends on December 19. What that bill will look like in detail is still up in the air. In broad outline in will follow the Cover All Pennsylvanian’s part of Governor Rendell’s Prescription for Pennsylvania. (Another part of the RxPA, which will regulate the insurance industry so as to reduce inflation in health care costs, is in HB 2005, which was recently passed by the Insurance Committee of… Continue reading

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The sound you heard on the El today was the fat lady singing

  By Transportation

The transfer issue is finally, totally over. Today was the last day for SEPTA to file an appeal of last month’s Commonwealth Court decision that kept transfers in place. (Technically the Commonwealth Court declared that SEPTA’s appeal of Judge DiVito’s decision to block it from eliminating transfers was moot because SEPTA had already adopted a different fare plan, one that kept transfers.) SEPTA did not appeal. I don’t know why SEPTA made this decision, since they typically play everything out to the end. I suppose one reason is that they saw that they were unlikely to prevail. But I’m going to be an optimist today and hope that SEPTA’s decision is a sign that SEPTA is going to be a better partner for the city and for transit riders. There is no reason SEPTA shouldn’t be. There are a lot of people in this city who really believe in public… Continue reading

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Save the Broad Street buildings

  By Philadelphia, Urbanism, Zoning

Yesterday, the State Department of General Services (DGS), which is building the Convention Center Expansion, ignored a ruling by the State Historical Commission, and started demolishing two historic buildings that stand in the path of the new building. This is doubly disappointing. It is important that we save these buildings. And the way in which the DGS, and our political leaders, are acting is truly despicable. Evidently it was too expensive to violate the trust of the people the way we usually do them in this state–which would have meant that the demolition would have started at 2 am. Instead, the state has acted at the next most nefarious time, when the holiday season is upon us and we were celebrating, among other things, a decision that we thought would protect these buildings. The whole story is below. Read it. And then email Governor Rendell and ask him to order… Continue reading

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The labor dispute at the convention center

  By Labor, Philadelphia

The city woke up to some good news in the Inquirer—Governor Rendell is evidently going to try to broke a compromise on the Convention Center labor dispute. So Council is not likely to adopt Frank DiCicco’s proposal to open the expansion of the Convention Center to non-union contractors This is a tough issue for those of us who are both pro-labor and pro-minority. There is no question that many of the building trades have fewer minority and women members than they should, given the demographics of the city and region. And there is no question that racism is a main reason for these low numbers. And yet, while I don’t doubt the good intentions of Frank DiCicco and the other supporters of this proposal, opening work at the Convention Center to non-union contractors is not a good solution, for many reasons. Continue reading