Council's three newest members continued their "we care about issues" tour with a joint appearance at a roundtable event that has "made notable contributions to the study and ethical practice of land use." (Their Christmas party is probably awesome. ) Councilman Jones has a nice idea to build a transit line from Center City out to the zoo and other parts of Fairmount Park (I like). Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez actually wants to tackle the fair/full valuation issue (the policy wonk in me likes, the homeowner of a South Philly home... no so much ;)) One thing in particular grabbed my attention: Green said the city could save 10 percent to 20 percent on infrastructure costs in the long run if it addressed problems now, instead of waiting for roads to cave in or sewer lines to collapse. He suggested that the city should put $60 million to $125 million in savings realized by a planned pension bond into infrastructure, instead of conservative stocks or bonds. The first part makes total sense to me. Fully fund infrastructure upkeep now using money from the operating budget rather than have to rebuild entire broken structures with the capital budget several years from now. It's like using your income to repair the leaky hole in your ceiling rather than waiting and having to take out a loan to rebuild your house when the roof collapses. The second part escapes me. Hopefully Ben can chime in to illuminate me. The city currently has pension obli ...
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