Believe it or not, neither Philadelphia’s City Council nor our Mayor are omnipotent. As much as it can seem like legislation flies around willy nilly at the intersection of Broad and Market Streets, there’s a lot of stuff we can’t do without state authorizing legislation. That phrase means what it sounds like: something has to change at the state level for local governments to be granted the authority to implement certain policies. This is true in Pennsylvania of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs…keep that google doc of acronyms nice and fresh!), as one example. BIDs collect additional assessments to pay for services, and in Pennsylvania they need authorizing legislation to behave that way. This means that groups like Center City District (CCD) function as they do thanks in part to action in Harrisburg.

This morning, two other state-related matters are hot off the presses:

1) Authorizing legislation for Land Banks: The Citywide Vision discusses a land bank as one strategy for better managing and disposing of the city’s vacant land. City Council has thought about it but the legislation that’s been introduced at the city level requires the passage of a state bill to hit the books first. In other words, Philadelphia does not have the permission to create a land bank without the state bill, which just passed the Senate yesterday and needs approval from the House as well.

2) City seeking new taxing powers: Pretty much everyone agrees we need to adjust our tax structure to generate more revenue for city services, encourage development, and enable home ownership and business creation. PCPC and other groups support the idea of moving to a system that more smartly taxes our fixed assets (property). This morning, the Inky reports that the Mayor, Council President, AND School District are pursuing several changes in Harrisburg that would enable the city to move forward with AVI, and do so with tools to mitigate some of the potential negative consequences. The legislation also deals with being able to tax commercial property differently than residential, another thing the city is not allowed to do at this time.

We know it’s dry stuff, but the life or death of these bills in that strange city to our west have tremendous impact on policy development and implementation in Philadelphia, and at the end of the day, the bottom line of the city’s budget, the bank accounts of homeowners, and the speed, efficiency, and sense with which we can improve our physical environment.