Authorizing the Council Committee on Commerce and Economic Development to hold hearings on the findings and recommendations of the Brookings Institution's report entitled "The Price is Wrong: Getting the Market Right for Working Families in Philadelphia"; and, further authorizing the Committee to seek advice and recommendations on how Philadelphia can grow its middle class by developing policies that assist working families.

WHEREAS, In comparison to many large cities in the Midwest and Northeast, Philadelphia faces the daunting challenge of population loss, outmigration of young and talented workers, stressed revenue base, business disinvestment, and high concentrations of poor neighborhoods; and

WHEREAS, Households in the bottom quintile of income were the only income group to grow in Philadelphia between 1979 and 1999 and more recently this trend is reflected by a U.S. Census Bureau survey of Philadelphia’s households that showed over 1 out of every 5 individuals in Philadelphia live below the poverty line in 2003; and

WHEREAS, Shrinking numbers of middle class households in Philadelphia erode the City’s effort to regain competitiveness and without a middle class tax base, the City has less money to spend on schools and services, which lowers the quality of living for everyone, threatens the promise of a public education, and makes it increasingly difficult for the City to attract and retain new families; and

WHEREAS, For these reasons, Philadelphia can both learn from and share strategies to grow a middle class with its peer cities around the country and the Brookings Institution (“Brookings”) selected Philadelphia because it has a recognition of this issue, has a dense network of scholars, practitioners, and policymakers, and a receptive local and state government; and

WHEREAS, Brookings, through the support of an Advisory Group developed by the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition, identified, as three major findings of its report, that low-income working families pay higher prices for a wide range of goods and services, that these higher prices reflect a cycle of financial insecurity, and that there are major opportunities to lower prices through state and local reform and market innovation; and

WHEREAS, It is in the interest of this Council to increase Philadelphia’s middle class by developing policies and strategies that enhance the economic standing of the City’s working families that will ultimately grow Philadelphia’s economy; now therefore

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That the Council Committee on Commerce and Economic Development hold hearings on the findings and recommendations of the Brookings Institution’s report entitled “The Price is Wrong: Getting the Market Right for Working Families in Philadelphia”; and, further authorizing the Committee to seek advice and recommendations on how Philadelphia can grow its middle class by developing policies that assist working families.

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