Soda tax
Predictably, the soda tax failed to deliver
When the tax was enacted, it was projected to generate about $91 million a year. Can you say pipe dream?
Soda tax
A taxing story on Philly’s soda tax
Philadelphia’s seven-year-old soda tax has increased health in the city, but maybe not, according to a story in the Inquirer that omits some important information. The Inquirer favored the targeted tax (I did not) and this piece by writer Aubrey Whelan reflects this bias. Let’s start at the
Education
Stats show the Philly soda tax was a fizzle
There it was, on Page One of the Inquirer’s local section, the unsurprising headline: “Philly tops in cities that saw beverage sales drop with soda tax.” Other soda-tax cities reported similar results. Not surprising because anyone who has mastered Economics 101 knows that the more heavily an item is
Politics
Kenney’s somewhat dented crowning achievement
It’s a jolly time of the year and the holiday spirit infuses the Philadelphia Inquirer’s series evaluating Jim Kenney, Philadelphia’s 99th mayor. Cherelle Parker thinks she’s Philadelphia’s first female mayor. Some think Kenney, that oft-blubbering mass of emotion, beat her to it. The Friday Inquirer
Politics
A dozen ways the next mayor can fix Philly
No, I am not going to run for mayor (again). While a Daily News columnist I ran several times as a satire of mayor elections. It gave me a platform from which I could put some ideas on the table. I am going to do that again, without the political
Jim Kenney
Emperor Kenney has no smiles
“Kenney has never fully embraced the public part of being a public official.He rarely smiles and is often snippy and surly. He reads speeches straight from the script and does not try to hide his often grumpy and detached look.” No, gentle reader, that is not my writing, although