Fattah joins "comparison" parade; the race at 10 days

We all remember the myriad comments Chaka Fattah has made to the effect that he wouldn't be going negative toward any of his opponents: So, take this ad which compares Fattah to both Michael Nutter and Tom Knox for what you will. A negative? A comparison?

Whatever it is, it helps show us what the race will likely look like for the last 10 days.

Fattah is taking on both frontrunners, saying their plans to find efficiencies in the government amount to "massive budget cuts." Here's the campaign's reasoning behind the ad.

Meanwhile, Bob Brady's sights are set squarely on Knox: now questioning his donations to both George Bush and Rick Santorum. Knox says it was only $1,500 from his wife, compared to the $500,000 he's donated to Democrats. $500,000, Brady snapped back at last night's debate, couldn't that lead to "pay to play."? And he did it with his eyes rolling; a sight to be seen.

So, the campaign at 10 days: Fattah vs. Nutter/Knox; Brady vs. Knox; Evans trying to put his record against everyone and anyone.

Two debates left, tomorrow and Sunday. Then a bunch of on the street tours through the city, posters held high.

10 days left.

Comments

[PhiladelphiaDeservesBetter]

Fattah is really desperate. He's started to lie.

[Aardhart]

That is PURE LIES. Neither Knox or Nutter is planning "massive budget cuts." Fattah may think that it is not as realistic as leasing the airport for $4 Billion to a company that would surrender all freedom to hire personel to the mayor, but having an unrealistic budget is not the same as planning massive budget cuts.

[Ray Murphy]

Every assertion made in the ad is backed up and you can see it here:
http://fightforroom215.typepad.com/room215/files/Reform_Documentation.pdf

[Max]

Chaka is clearly desperate and has abandoned his repeated pledge to stay positive but sadly for him he doesn't even have the money to do a real ad buy with this POS.

[Fattah for Mayor]

What until we release the "Shocka!!!!" on knox, Janie "Sellout" and Nutter. Ain't yall gonna be surprised?

[Stanley Shapiro]

Great that Fattah is finally exposing Nutter's shell game proposal to cut business taxes to the bone and increase services. Can't be done folks. It's voodoo economics all over again.

[Aardhart]

You heard it hear first. You want high taxes, Vote Fattah!

[Patricio]

Arthur Davenport might be the most arrogant golf playing, vote missing phony in history. Really.

[dude]

this ad, and it's supporting documentation is misleading and, frankly, grasping at straws.

First of all, both Knox and Nutter have mostly proposed taking money from one place in the budget and putting it somewhere they think will produce better results (and I agree with them). I do agree that neither one, and especially Knox, has provided us with every minute detail of how they'd pay for all their proposals, but I do consider Nutter's plan to be a good faith effort that provides a pretty good idea of how he would go about doing what he plans to do.

Second of all, the city's tax revenue has increased and not decreased in every year the Rendell (and later Nutter) tax cuts have happened. Opponents would argue that they would be even higher if taxes weren't being cut, but that isn't necessarily the case since Philadelphia has historically leaked jobs and residents like a sieve, which tends to kill tax revenue. The recent slowdown in this leakage is largely responsible for the increased income (more people paying less taxes equals more tax revenue).

Finally, regardless of what guess work Knox and Nutter may be leaving us with as far as their budget proposals, they're nothing in comparison to the guess work Fattah is leaving us with.

This ad is worse than anything Knox has come up with in the "truthfulness" department.

[dude]

BTW, according to the latest "budget in brief" the city has online, the business privilege tax only accounts for about 10% of the city's core budget, while I think over a third of it comes from the wage tax. If the city is able to attract more businesses through an effort that includes cutting the BPT, the increased revenue from the wage tax is likely to more than make up for the lost revenue from the BPT.