A message from the Chamber’s President & CEO Rob Wonderling to our community about the recent release of recommendations and actions from Recharge & Recover PHL.
Dear Friends,
While Thanksgiving is over a month away, I am so thankful, humbled, and amazed by the extraordinary leadership of our city and region’s business community. As we continue to forge ahead to fight COVID-19, address issues surrounding equity and inclusion, and expand philanthropy to our most vulnerable citizens, you – our members – are what makes our community truly remarkable.
Always striving to do more, our Chamber initiated an unprecedented public-private collaboration with leaders from government, business, and civic communities to find solutions for this crisis through our Recharge & Recover PHL initiative. Board members raised their hands to make a commitment to hire, mentor, and train the 5,000 workers projected to be reskilled over the next three years through our Philadelphia Skills Forward Initiative. Our Diverse Procurement Collaborative has grown to include over 140 individuals from 110 organizations who have made a two-year commitment not only to the program, but to an inclusive economic recovery for our city and region.
One key element of helping Philadelphia rebound after the pandemic, attract workers back to the city, and entice new companies to locate and grow here, is fixing a tax system which for too long has made our city a difficult and expensive place to be.
As we have written before, after discussions to reduce the cost of doing business in the city collapsed during the budget process, City Council and the Mayor’s Office announced the creation of a Tax Reform Working Group to review the city’s tax structure and make recommendations for the next year’s budget. We hope this will be a real opportunity to create a true public-private partnership between city government and the business community to advance an inclusive growth, job creation tax policy for the city of Philadelphia. While we believe — based on evidence across the country — that tax policy directly impacts economic development and the creation of good paying jobs, we know that others in our community and on the Working Group do not share that view. Our Chamber Board Chair Sue Jacobson is a member of the group and we can’t think of a better advocate for employers and the workers they employ.
Earlier this month, the new Working Group had its first meeting, which focused on process and goals and began the important debate about how best to increase the number of jobs and workers in Philadelphia, and what policies are needed to foster inclusive growth in every neighborhood. The group is under a short deadline to make recommendations. We will continue to update you as this process moves forward.
We stand ready at this key moment in time working with the Tax Reform Group to move us closer to post-pandemic prosperity through a very simple yet proven equation: Less business taxes = more jobs!
Stay safe, connected, and healthy, and continue to let us know how we can help.
Rob
Rob Wonderling
President & CEO
The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia
