In an informal partnership with Philadelphia magazine‘s new Philly Post daily news blog, Technically Philly will be offering our insight on Philadelphia technology to a broader audience of tech-interested individuals every Tuesday. As is true of so much of our effort, this is yet another opportunity to voice the triumphs and concerns of the community to a broader audience in the city and beyond.

Pennsylvania lawmakers sounded a warning bell last week, predicting a $1 billion deficit if taxes aren’t increased or significant spending cuts executed. And for the first time in close to two decades, computer services professionals are being looked to to help bridge the gap.

Governor Rendell’s proposed 2011 budget includes plans to broaden the tax base to 74 goods and services not currently taxable under the state sales tax, including computing and information technology work.

Call it history repeating itself.

In 1991, with an expected hole in the budget, Governor Casey looked to extend the sales tax to additional professional services, including computer services. Paul J. Mathison, who has analyzed state budgets and their impact on technology for close to two decades, remembers it well.

Read more at Philadelphia magazine’s Philly Post.

In an informal partnership with Philadelphia magazine‘s new Philly Post daily news blog, Technically Philly will be offering our insight on Philadelphia technology to a broader audience of tech-interested individuals every Tuesday. As is true of so much of our effort, this is yet another opportunity to voice the triumphs and concerns of the community to a broader audience in the city and beyond.

Last Tuesday, city chief technology officer Allan Frank laid out the Division of Technology’s unprecedented six-year, $120 million budget in a hearing before City Council.

The sizable investment is a commitment to an executive order announced last July when Frank’s staff was more than tripled to 520 employees and plans were put in place to consolidate resources, improve technology infrastructure and streamline city services.

It is, in our opinion, absolutely necessary. As Frank told Council, according to the Daily News: “The world changed, but the city never changed.”

Read more at Philly Mag’s Philly Post.

Mayor Nutter has announced plans to significantly invest in city information technology and pursue paperless government efficiencies in an attempt to improve tech infrastructure, cut costs and streamline city services.

“We may not be completely paperless, but we will use less paper,” Nutter said in his budget address to City Council this morning before a packed crowed that filled the historic Council chamber’s floor and balcony seating.

If City Council approves the budget, Nutter says that an “unprecedented” investment in city technology will provide $120 million to improve IT over the next five years, including $25 million in FY11.

Job creation is also a priority of Nutter’s $3.87 billion budget proposal. Nutter promised to restore in 2014 the wage and business tax reduction schedule, halted last year. He also referenced tech tax incentive pilot studies announced last week, which will allow technology firms to sell services outside of the city tax-free.

Nutter insisted that tax increases did not make sense during a recession, proposing instead two new city revenue streams�a hike in trash collection fees and a sales tax increase on sugar-sweeneted beverages�to help close the city’s budget shortfall. With the city buried by double-digit unemployment, Nutter told the crowd that Philadelphia “must not allow our present to be our future,” later quoting Thomas Paine: “These are the times that try men’s souls,” he said.

The announcements are more evidence of the municipality’s continued attention to city technology. City Chief Technology Officer Allan Frank hinted at the Mayor’s intent to invest in IT at a Refresh Philly event a year ago. The administration overhauled the Division of Technology last year, placing Frank in charge of 33 city agencies and 520 employees. Last month, Councilman Bill Green introduced legislation to enact a permanent Chief Information Officer position as part of the Mayoral cabinet.

Nutter also praised in the address Councilmen Green and Rizzo for their work with the motor vehicle cell phone ban.

In a restricted budget season, you have to make your case for survival.

Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Partners program has earned the state $3.50 for every $1 invested, according to an independent study by the Pennsylvania Economy League for the years between 2002 and 2006, as cited in a Morning Call Op-ed.

In 25 years, the program’s Southeastern Pennsylvania branch — based at the Naval Yard in South Philadelphia – has provided more than $130 million to grow more than 1,600 regional enterprises, but still, lingering in the state Senate is a bill that would cut 60 percent of the body that funds the statewide BFTP program.

“This is an extremely challenging year for the state budget, and difficult decisions must be made,” wrote R. Chadwick Paul Jr., the president and CEO of the Northeastern Pa. arm of BFTP, in the Op-ed in the Call. “But decreasing funding for Ben Franklin would reduce Pennsylvania job creation and job retention, and result in a net revenue loss for the commonwealth.”

Innovation groups westward have taken up the cause, too.

Startup Pittsburgh is calling for entrepreneurs to lobby their legislators in Harrisburg, as is the Pittsburgh Technology Council. In addition to the ‘burgh and Philly, BFTP covers the Lehigh Valley from Bethlehem and the Pennsylvania T from the safe confines of State College.

“Since 1983, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania alone has helped companies create 13,931 jobs and helped them retain 20,772 existing jobs. These are highly paid, sustainable jobs,” Paul also wrote. “Ben Franklin boosted the Pennsylvania gross state product by $9.3 billion.”

The deadline for the state budget looms at the month’s end; it has to be passed by July 1. No budget has passed on time since Gov. Ed Rendell took office in 2003. He recently warned state workers they will stop being paid if the budget fight goes late, again. In a particularly tight fiscal year, that fight is particularly heated, so no matter the importance of innovation, BFTP is, like most other groups, on the chopping block.

Does every group that receives state money have to take cutbacks in this economy, or is it foolish to think to slash any money from BFTP which is said to make the state a profit? Have you seen Philadelphia groups or organizations take a stand on this issue?

H/T Philly Tech News

Somebody please figure out this city’s budget shortfall so we can go back to prospering.

It can be Mayor Michael Nutter or city council or, Hell, maybe Larry West.

Maybe you can figure it out with a new, very cool online toy from the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, the research and analysis nonprofit based on the Avenue of the Arts.

At EconomyLeague.com/Budget, users get a snapshot of the budget battle, by having to close a $200 million hole with 15 options.

“Through the Philadelphia Budget Challenge as well as the Mayor’s budget forums in February, citizens are getting a look behind the curtain at the real trade-offs city managers have to make,” said Allison Kelsey, a spokeswoman for the Economy League. “It makes for better-informed constituents and voters who can then be better advocates for themselves, their neighborhoods and their city.”

See what went into the project, read how I fared and share your own choices below.

Since its March 23 launch, some 2,000 people have taken the challenge, which was funded by West Conshohocken’s Lenfest Foundation, Kelsey told Technically Philly.

Steven Wray, the Economy League executive director, called the online tool a three-way exercise.

“To help people learn more about the city budget, and the second part was to make that learning experience fun, and then finally to also be able to collect some information about the choices people make,” Wray told KYW.

So the game, which focuses on short-term choices, might lack a bit of nuance for budget geeks out there, but a great deal of learning is to be had there.

The Economy League is sharing their results, suggesting the administration might take those perspectives into consideration — something it seems they surprisingly did do after those citizen workshops.

Kelsey said she doesn’t know if the mayor gave the online tool a go.

“Most Philadelphians are unaware of how much of the city’s total budget is already spent before the mayor and council have their say,” Kelsey said, directing users to see its breakdown of how the city used its $3.9 billion budget, which is seen below, and also how the city generated its revenue last fiscal year.

The Economy League hopes to update the tool annually, keeping choices nuanced and situation-based as the times change, Kelsey said.

The challenge has made a bit of a splash, in addition to outlets around town, the tool has gotten attention across the pond, too. It breaks our tiny TP heart, though, that not a single Philly tech head had a hand in the design of the challenge, according to the Economy League press release:

The Economy League licensed the prototype from Next 10, a Palo Alto organization that in 2005�created its “California Budget Challenge” to engage more Californians in the budget process. The original software was developed by Red Hill Studios, and additional development for the Philadelphia Budget Challenge was created by Rock River Star, Downingtown, PA. [Source]

The century-old Economy League offers a host of fascinating documents to help inform yourself on the process, including its budget roadmap. See the mayor’s five-year budget plan.

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[I couldn't help but share my choices, which still left the city $5.1 million over budget -- so maybe I'd go after the Eagles. This also serves some transparency into my view of the city structure.

I didn't touch the city's wage, sales and business privilege taxes -- doing otherwise feels far, far more dangerous than other proposals. I increased slightly real estate and amusement taxes and trimmed spending for the city's library spending and office of supportive housing.

I really didn't want to touch prison funding because we know the fist programs to go are the most helpful -- job training and the like -- but I did. Hoping to take seriously the politics involved in a budget proposal, I didn't touch police and fire department spending, though I did seek for a� reassessment of the city's pension fund.

My big cuts were 20 percent dips into the city's administrative and licenses & inspections departments and a big fat 30 percent slash of the city's fleet management (city employees should be using SEPTA, period.)

So, how did you fare?]