Authorizing City Council's Committee on Legislative Oversight to hold public hearings on the City of Philadelphia's current business permitting and licensing processes and how they impact the start-up, expansion, and retention of small businesses within the City's borders.

WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia, through a variety of city agencies that play a role in business permitting, such as the Department of Licenses & Inspections, the Streets Department, the Historical Commission, the Arts Commission, the Police Department, the Health Department, etc., currently imposes an extremely confusing and burdensome permitting system that serves as a barrier to small business development within the City; and

WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia, having failed to take advantage of the economic boom of the 1990’s, and its job growth over the last decade was the worst of the country’s large cities, and so Philadelphia now faces a declining national economy while already being mired in economic stagnancy; and

WHEREAS, Small businesses constitute a significant portion of our national and local economy, with firms of 1 to 19 employees comprising nearly 85 percent of the City’s establishments, and will continue to play a vital role in the City of Philadelphia’s economic development; and

WHEREAS, Studies by the Small Business Administration indicate that small business owners are unduly burdened by complex regulatory processes, and a number of Philadelphia’s competitor cities have taken steps to alleviate these burdens to improve their competitive advantages; and

WHEREAS, These findings were confirmed by several other studies and reports, including the City Controller’s “Regulatory Survey and Analysis” from October 1999, the Center City District’s “Making the Store Improvement Process Business Friendly” from October 1998, and Economic Development Small Business Task Force Recommendations Report of Mayor Street’s Transition Committee from March 2000; and

WHEREAS, Small business owners within Philadelphia indicate through survey results that there is a high level of dissatisfaction with existing permit acquisition processes, with dissatisfaction increasing as the number of contacts with City agencies increase; and

WHEREAS, In order to encourage job growth within the City of Philadelphia, to restore the City’s tax base, and to provide economic opportunity for all the citizens of Philadelphia, the City must look towards encouraging job growth and creating a more hospitable and simplified regulatory environment for small business start-up, expansion and retention; now therefore

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That authority be given to the Legislative Oversight Committee to hold public hearings on the City of Philadelphia’s current business permitting and licensing processes and how they impact the start-up, expansion, and retention of small businesses within the City’s borders.

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