Philadelphia Targets Costs of Parades and Festivals

In the continuing battle to shore up Philadelphia's ailing budget, parades were one of the first things Mayor Michael Nutter targeted in the fall of 2008. The approaching Thanksgiving and New Year's Mummer's Parades were already budgeted for, and not funding the 2008 World Series parade would have sent people into the streets with torches. However, the six annual ethnic parades scheduled for 2009 were told to ante up for police presence and clean up costs, or cancel their parades, and the Mummer's were given notice that they, too, must pay in 2010.

To save last year's St. Patrick's Day parade, they rerouted the march, and local businesses and organizations put up the extra money. This year's St. Patrick's Day Parade reached an agreement the day before it was set to go off, agreeing to pay $10,000 for last year's parade, and put up a $5,000 down payment for the 2010 parade. (Michael Bradley, the parade director, was quoted as saying, "We were going to march no matter what they said, because we believe we have the right to assemble." Ah, gotta love them Irish!)

Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez has introduced legislation that would limit the amount the City could charge ethnic parades to $7,500, $5,000 for festivals. The councilwoman noted that the six ethnic parades cost the city roughly $200,000 each year, and voiced displeasure that parade organizers were handed bills last year without warning.

The six annual ethnic parades held in Philadelphia are the Pulaski Day, St. Patrick's Day, Greek Independence Day, Steuben Day, Columbus Day and Puerto Rican Day. All but the Columbus Day event scrambled for private funding to meet the City's demands, and proceeded in 2009 with shorter or altered routes and starting times. The Columbus Day parade was cancelled and replaced with a stationary festival.

The New Year's Day Mummer's Parade, Philadelphia's biggest parade, draws relocated Philadelphians and visitors from all over the country and the world. Many plan their New Year's Eve celebration in Center City specifically so they'll have a front row seat for the parade at local hotels and restaurants. These visitors bring in much needed tax revenue and bolster local businesses. That parade, too, was saved this year by local businesses and organizations, and a grass roots fundraising campaign, that had to not only raise money for police and sanitation, but also for the prize money the City no longer puts up.

Mayor Nutter says he is only attempting to enforce a 1993 Rendell administration policy which was drafted in prior tough fiscal times, requiring every procession to pay the full city costs. Former Mayor Rendell's policy was rarely enforced. While the Mayor claims every group should pay the same, Quiñones-Sánchez disagrees, correctly noting that, "All of these parades don't require the same manpower."

This year, Philadelphia almost lost the Dad Vail Regatta, a 56-year tradition, when race officials announced last fall that the Regatta would move to Rumson, New Jersey, due to the City's demands. After negotiations, and the failure of the promised $250,000 from Rumson to materialize, the Regatta agreed to stay in Philadelphia, while the City agreed to seek sponsors to defray the Regatta costs.

Some say that the taxpayers already pay for police and sanitation costs and should be free to take to the streets. Others say that parade and festival organizers should factor police and sanitation costs into their festival budgets. All I know is that the tax revenue generated by these events has got to be more than the police and sanitation costs. It would be unthinkable to lose the Mummers, a century old tradition, whose working class participants have been known to mortgage their rowhouses to pay for costumes, storage and meeting places. Philadelphia's St. Patrick's Day parade, at 240 years old, is the second oldest parade in the country, New York's parade only five years older.

The groups that participate and sponsor these parades don't just come around on the day of the parade. They're here intermittently throughout the year and work year-round to promote the city. Instituting fiscal policies that could drive these events away is cutting off a nose to spite a face. I don't think we should be putting money ahead of tradition and good faith. Philadelphia can use all the good PR it can muster! And considering the tax revenue the City takes in during these events, paying for police and sanitation seems like a fair trade.

So, Mayor Nutter, let's attach some bank accounts to recoup that $430 million in outstanding property taxes, and send Dog The Bounty Hunter out to track down those fugitive bail deadbeats who owe us one billion dollars. And, oh yeah, it's time to dump DROP! The Mummers must strut, and the Irish, Greeks, Italians, Germans, Polish and Puerto Ricans must march!

Sources: Personal Experience; City offers options for Ethnic Parades; Parade Rouite changed; Phila St. Pat's Parade; Mummers.com; Phila is hard put to finance Ethnic Parades; Ethnic Parades Plead Their Cases; Expense Deal Brokered for St. Patrick's Day Parade; Councilwoman Wants to Limit city Bills for Ethnic Parades