Special Briefing: Big Cities, Big Challenges

The panelists discuss how Inflation has yet to be controlled, recession is looming, federal COVID-19 budgetary aid will soon expire, and working from home is decreasing demand for Center City businesses. What can be done? 

Our panel of experts includes Greg David, director, business and economics reporting program, City University of New York Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, and a contributor to The City, covering fiscal and economic issues; Shirley Clarke Franklin, former mayor, Atlanta, Georgia, and director, The Volcker Alliance; Heather Gillers, reporter, the Wall Street Journal; and Farhad Omeyr, program director of research and data, National League of Cities.

 Notable Quotes:

 “We observe that governments that rely heavily on only property taxes for their general-purpose expenditures, saw less turbulence in their budgeting after the shutdown of the economy because property taxes were inelastic, relatively speaking.” - Farhad Omeyr

 “When I moved to Atlanta 50 years ago, the metropolitan area was 1 million people, and the state was 4 million. Today the metropolitan area is close to 6 million. The infrastructure that is needed to support a healthy community and healthy economy has really not kept pace.” - Sharley Clarke Franklin 

“All the contracts with our unions either have expired or the last view will expire in the next month or two. We could get short term contracts instead of four- and five-year contracts. We could get contracts with reopeners, we could get one one-time upfront payments, because after all, we don't know if inflation is going to continue at this rate.” - Greg David

 “Longtime Mayor Richard Daley underfunded the pension plans, just set aside far less money than really needed to be in those pension funds to meet future obligations.” - Heather Gillers 

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Special Briefing is published by the Volcker Alliance, as part of its Public Finance initiatives, and Penn IUR.

 The views expressed on this podcast are those of the panelists and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Volcker Alliance or Penn IUR.