Welcome to Philadelphia Jobs with Justice

Six months ago, the Pike County court decision empowered cities to tax mega-nonprofits like Penn and Jefferson when they use land for commercial purposes. Mayor Nutter's administration still has yet to obey the law and issue assessments to such institutions, and refuses to commit to doing so.

What Mayor Nutter apparently DOES have time to do is to engage in silly publicity stunts like rappelling down skyscrapers.

Can you think of a caption for this photo that gives a sense of Mayor Nutter's misplaced priorities? Help us out and submit your entry on Facebook! We'll be posting submissions on our website throughout November.

The author of the best caption gets a styling JwJ tee!

Deadline is 11/30.

If you live in Philly, you've probably noticed a pattern in the way that our mayor talks about money. Every budget cycle, he tells us soberly that as much as he would like to fund everything. there just isn't enough money. We need to make cuts. Some years it's to our libraries and pools. Some years it's our schools.

He tells us that the cuts are our only option.

They aren't.

What if I told you that there were at least 107 million dollars in institutional property taxes that Mayor Nutter is legally obligated to tax--and isn't? Bear with me--this is a little detailed, but it's important:

This April, the State Supreme Court decided that all property-holding nonprofits need to meet a stringent set of criteria--the HUP test--in order to qualify for property tax exemption.

Now, we're not saying that every nonprofit should pay property taxes. But when a university like Penn buys a hotel and runs it for profit, or a hospital lets land lie vacant and undeveloped--then, Mayor Nutter is legally obligated to collect property taxes.

Under this Supreme Court ruling, the Nutter administration is legally required to issue tax bills to all property-holding nonprofits this December. It's on the nonprofit to take a few minutes and re-file for tax exemption under the HUP test criteria.

Last year, $528 million in property taxes went uncollected due to exemptions. The budgetary shortfall that threatened to destroy our schools was $90 million.

So what is Nutter's administration planning to do? Apparently, wait for nonprofits like Penn to come to them. When asked by WHYY, senior administration tax attorney Christine Bak stated, "I would hope very much some of those would contact us and want to get into some kind of tax contribution agreement again."

Call 215-686-2181 today, and demand that Mayor Nutter obey the law and issue tax bills to all property-holding nonprofits this December. He needs to hold big institutions like Penn and Jefferson accountable to the same rules he holds working people to.

We'll be joining ROC and Fight for Philly today at 4:00 pm, marching from the Liberty Bell to the Gallery Mall as a part of today's National Day of Action around the minimum wage. Here's a great explanation why, from our friends at AFSCME: 

 Says AFSCME: 

"It’s time for Congress to raise the federal minimum wage. The last time they did, in 2009, it rose to $7.25 an hour. That’s just $15,080 a year for someone employed full time – hardly enough to support a family of four.

In fact, it’s $7,000 less than the federal poverty line for such a family. [...] Meanwhile, CEO pay has risen 725 percent over the last 30 years and 80 percent of all real income growth has gone to the richest 1 percent of Americans. The gap between the 1 percent and the 99% has never been higher. [...]

We call on Congress to support the Rebuild America Act introduced this year by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA). “A higher minimum wage is the simplest thing we can do to help struggling families become self-sufficient and join the middle class,” the bill states.

We here at Philly Jobs with Justice say, amen.

AFSCME.org | The Minimum Wage is Outdated

Tomorrow night is our Solidarity Awards Reception, and I hope you'll join us then.

 In the meantime, however, I want to call on you to join us in putting our belief in solidarity into action around one of the most urgent crises our working communities face right now.

 Our schools are under attack. Under Tom Knudsen, the School District of Philadelphia is threatening to:

• Close 64 public schools;
• Force 40% of students into private charters;
• Turn all our schools over to outside operators;
• Lay off twenty-seven hundred education workers unionized by SEIU 32BJ.

We can't stand for this. We ask you to join us tonight at Bright Hope Baptist Church at 6:30 (12th and Cecil B. Moore Ave.) for an emergency education community meeting hosted by our allies at Action United. Chief Recovery Officer Tom Knudsen and Mayor Michael Nutter have both been invited.

Tomorrow, we stand with 32BJ members and working families, fighting for the jobs of 2,700 bus drivers, janitors, bus attendants, engineers, and maintenance workers. These critical education workers have already received layoff notices from the School District, and we will be rallying with them in solidarity starting at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow at MSB Plaza (15th & JFK), then joining them in marching at noon sharp.

 Let's stand up for our children.

 Let's stand in solidarity with the workers who serve our schools.

 Let's stand up for education.