EVEN THOUGH it comes with the $90 million promise of
universal pre-kindergarten and refurbished parks and recreation centers, I'm
highly skeptical of Philadelphia's proposed 3-cents-per-ounce sugary-drink tax.
Not only because researchers acknowledge that low-income
blacks and Latinos are the highest consumers of sugary drinks, but also
because, under the city's current work rules, those same low-income people
would be barred from getting the jobs the new tax would help to create.
How could that be, you ask? It's all connected to a
Nutter administration executive order that mandates the use of union labor on
all large-scale, city-funded projects. With a price tag of $600 million, the
parks and recs rehab known as "Rebuild" would fall under that order,
and the jobs would be union-only.
The unions have customarily refused to release their
membership demographics, but a 2013 analysis by journalist Tom Ferrick found
that Philadelphia's building trades unions are 99 percent male, 76 percent
white and 67 percent suburban residents. That means the low-income blacks and
Latinos who consume the most sugary drinks would not only shoulder the bulk of
the tax burden, but also would fund employment for the very unions that have
frozen them out of job opportunities for generations.
That's wrong, and the members of City Council I've spoken
with are keenly aware of that truth.
"There is a PLA - project labor agreement - that
says all of the jobs relating to the construction of these facilities must come
from the union halls," Council President Darrell Clarke told me in a radio
interview on 900-AM WURD. "And you and I both know that the minority
participation in the building trades is simply not there. So I don't know how
that's consistent. How do you get demographically the appropriate
representation on the workforce if you have to get them out of the existing
unions? That's a problem for me."
It's a problem for me, too, but it's one that can be
solved by Mayor Kenney. He could write a new executive order giving the city
the flexibility to use nonunion workers on large-scale, city-funded projects,
or he could negotiate a more inclusive project labor agreement under the
current order.
Kenney has chosen to do the latter. According to
spokeswoman Lauren Hitt, the mayor is considering a broad PLA for
"Rebuild" with the Philadelphia Building Trades Council. As part of
those negotiations, the administration would seek language that addresses
submission of each building trades' membership demographics, development of
apprentice-ready programs for residents in high unemployment areas, a tally of
hours worked by minority and female workers, and sanctions for contractors and
unions that fail to meet those goals.
Hitt says union representatives are meeting with Council
members and the mayor on those issues.
Still, the diversity issue has not been solved. Until it
is, the city should not be considering a sugary-drinks tax that could
disproportionately impact low-income communities while freezing them out of
jobs.
Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds-Brown, who has proposed an
alternative to the sugary drinks tax, says the jobs issue must be resolved.
"In the rebuild of those centers, if there's not
language in these amendments that we intend to put forth that guarantees - and
I say this with my strongest conviction - that (minority- and women-owned
businesses) are factored into the language of those bills, then compromise will
be very, very difficult to get to," she told me in an interview.
"Because it will be unacceptable for those rec centers (and) libraries to
be rebuilt on the backs of those who have given up paying those tax dollars
when their fathers and mothers can't even get jobs to rebuild those rec
centers."
I agree. But even if we correct the unjust labor
agreement that enables and codifies discrimination, there remains the problem
of taxing a product that's disproportionately used by the poor.
That's why we must consider the alternative
Reynolds-Brown has proposed. It's called a container tax, and it would spread
the burden beyond the poor communities where the bulk of sugary drinks are
sold.
"My container tax says that there will be a 15-cent
flat rate on any non-reusable, sealed container, which includes soda, energy
drinks, sweetened natural juices, teas and coffee," Brown told me.
"And, like the 3-cent soda tax, the container tax excludes milk and
milk-related products."
The Kenney administration has said Reynolds-Brown's
proposal won't raise enough money. Councilman Curtis Jones, with whom I also
spoke, says Reynolds-Brown's proposal is an interesting idea, but is in fact a
grocery tax.
The semantics don't concern me, however. The final
outcome does.
If we pass any tax to fund job creation in Philadelphia,
we can't exclude people of color from the jobs.
City Council and the mayor must make sure of it.
Source: Philly.com
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