How the City of Philadelphia spends $3.5 billion annually should be better visualized online, we say.

The state-empowered Philadelphia Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA), which is chaired by investor and former mayoral candidate Sam Katz, released in November a citizen’s guide to the City of Philadelphia General Fund that was full of visualizations — all buried in a PDF.

While we shared the document a few weeks ago, after seeing it on PhillyDeals, it seems that it all passed with too little fanfare. While we at Technically Philly would love to work with PICA to develop a friendlier, more interactive web version of this project, we thought we’d start by sharing our 10 favorite of the many charts and graphs detailing where the city government gets its money and how it’s spent.

In addition to the one above, see our 10 favorites below.

Also see the original PDF here or here (Technically Philly strongly recommends you give the document a look for additional explanation for much of the information below).

REVENUES

Distribution of Fiscal Year 2012 General Fund Revenues

Distribution of Fiscal Year 2012 General Fund TAX Revenues

EMPLOYMENT

How many city employees

Percentage change in city employment by agency

EXPENDITURES

Percent of budget distributed by function

Percent of budget distributed by agency

Comparing the 10 largest U.S. cities by expenditures

TAXES

Tax revenue and rate

Comparing 10 large U.S. cities by state and local tax burden

Comparing 10 large U.S. cities by percentage of tax revenues

If you are wondering which businesses could benefit the most from business privilege tax (BPT) reform measures passed by City Council Thursday, think small. As in small businesses.

MORE

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods program, the capstone class for the Temple’s Department of Journalism.

Mike Worth and Lou Tranchitella realized the need for a big-budget video game studio in Philadelphia, and in February, co-founded Play Eternal.

Now they’re just waiting for their big break.

The duo, along with more than a dozen other members of their team, have a prototype in the hands of major publishers to fund what could be on Xbox Live Arcade or the Sony Playstation Network. If that, or another of a handful of major projects come through, a nearly three year effort to build out the city’s video game development culture will reach another height.

There are steps to go, but the movement has inched forward since early 2009.

With the growth of Worth’s Videogame Growth Initiative movement and a local technology community here, along with excellent video game development programs at Drexel and Penn, the absence of a “Hollywood-level quality” shop, called a AAA studio, seemed unwarranted to Worth and Tranchitella.

“There are studios in lots of different states, there’s no reason for it not to happen here. Philadelphia seemed like a great place to do this,” Tranchitella said. “The technology is here.”

For now, the Play Eternal team, which numbers at 17, is working virtually, Worth said.

Their major untitled futuristic action-adventure prototype is, as Worth describes it, “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light meets Super Metroid in a futuristic, Blade Runner inspired world.” The team is also currently prototyping a mobile and tablet game and in advanced discussions for two work-for-hire development projects that would have production cycles of 14 months and two years respectively, Worth said.

If any of them are funded in a major way, Worth says, he’ll make good on his promise of opening up PlayEternal in Philadelphia. Building that magnet of video game development work, Worth has said, starts with a big AAA studio first. The distinction of a AAA studio is clear.

“What it typically means is that it’s a $50 to $60 game that takes over two years to build. Price is no object. You’ve got dozens of characters or hundreds of weapons. It’s basically the highest level of quality, the largest level of gameplay, they are marketed incredibly heavily, and are marketed like a Hollywood film,” Worth said.

Play Eternal differs from the typical AAA studio in that it aims to produce smaller video games over nine months to a year, available for digital download, as opposed to producing one game for two to three years to be sold in video game stores.

“Our idea was what if you take that AAA idea but break it down to a smaller, bite sized game that might take you five to 10 hours to play, will cost between $10 and $20 and is delivered to you digitally. So, you can download it through Xbox Live Arcade or Play Station Network,” said Tranchitella, the company’s CEO.

Although the two knew that there was not already a AAA studio in Philadelphia, Worth and Tranchitella were not discouraged, and wanted to stay in the city. They turned their efforts away from being service providers to other companies, and focused on starting their own big-budget business.

“Truth be told, it’s like, ‘let’s just do it ourselves and see what happens.’ That’s really how it started,” Tranchitella said.

Both Worth and Tranchitella have high hopes for the company and its success. Worth said he hopes their success will be an example for other studios to start up in Philadelphia, and help the video game community grow. Worth has been involved in lobbying for tax incentives and more to attract a greater development presence here, though other markets battle for those businesses. The Play Eternal team worked with state Sen. Daylin Leach to introduce Senate Bill 700 to offer tax breaks for video game development company, but four months later the bill is still sitting in the senate finance committee [See sidebar].

Although the bill will benefit Play Eternal, being the first studio of its kind in Philadelphia has proved to be a bit challenging.

“When you’re the first, its good and bad. People were really interested in us right away. The bad news is, that because there’s no industry here, nobody knows about the financial and social benefits of it,” Worth said.

Worth stressed because the industry is not as big as some of the current industries, like pharmaceuticals and biotechs, it is harder for people to realize the potential of the video game industry to benefit the capital of the city.

“The hardest thing is educating people about what the game industry actually is. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry. Once you say that to people, their eyes perk up, like, ‘oh, this actually makes money,’” Tranchitella said.

Play Eternal currently employs around 17 people, said Tranchitella, but they hope to grow to around 50 or 60 members over the next two to three years.

“We really want to be involved in the game community in Philadelphia,” he said. “We want to be a studio that people respect and look up to. We want to be a studio that people want to come and work at.”

City Council chambers. Photo by Albert Yee.

A bill that would make changes to the City of Philadelphia’s tax structure was approved Monday by City Council’s Committee on Finance, as the Daily News reported. If passed by Council, the measure would be phased into practice during a three-year period starting in fiscal year 2015.

The bill, introduced by Council members Bill Green and Maria Quiñones Sanchez, as discussed in our Q&A with her Friday, would exempt the first $100,000 in business receipts from both the gross and net income portions, a move aimed at startups and small businesses based in the city.

“This represents a higher tax reduction than [other] plans for a gross receipts reduction,” Sanchez told Technically Philly.

Additionally, to aid exporting businesses, taxes would only be paid on services and products sold within the city. The bill has evolved from earlier legislation put forth by Green and Sanchez that was put through a working group with administration and business community input.

The two bills would eventually amount to $70 million in tax relief, the Inquirer reported.

Another measure that earned committee approval, introduced by Councilman Jim Kenney and supported by Green and Sanhchez, would repeal the city’s business privilege license for businesses starting in fiscal year 2014. A lifetime license is $300 and $50 for a given year.

“This is the biggest impact in tax reforms done in the history of the city of Philadelphia in one single day,” Green told the Daily News.

Two and a half weeks before Election Day, freshman Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sanchez has effectively already earned a second term.

After soundly beating challenger Dan Savage, who held the seat and lost it to Sanchez,  in an at times bitter primary, the Inquirer-endorsed Sanchez is running unopposed in the general campaign for the seventh council district.

So now she can focus a bit more on her legislative work.

Representing largely poor and blighted neighborhoods like Kensington and portions of North Philadelphia up to Frankford at the foothills of the Northeast, Quiñones Sanchez has taken an interest in digital divide issues and tax reform policy to try to retain what manufacturing remains in the broken heart of the Workshop of the World.

The first Latina on council, Quiñones Sanchez, 42, was born in Puerto Rico but raised in Hunting Park and now lives in Norris Square with her husband and two sons. A Mastbaum High School and Lincoln University alumnae, she worked for council members, including former at-large Councilman Angel Ortiz, and is credited with having brought life back to Latino education-advocacy group Aspira, along with leading other Hispanic-focused community organizations.

In 1999, she lost to incumbent City Councilman Rick Mariano but after he went to federal prison in 2006 and Savage was chosen by ward leaders to replace him, she beat him in the 2007 primary. Full bio here [.doc].

Below, Technically Philly speaks to Quiñones Sanchez about taxes, computer literacy and how city data helped clean up her district.

Photo by April Saul for the Inquirer.

As always, edited for length and clarity.

What is the status of the tax reform legislation from Councilman Green and yourself? We reported earlier this year that it was in a working group.

We have now reintroduced the legislation and are holding a hearing on Monday, Oct. 24 to hear outside perspective on it.

The legislation we introduced this session is a little different than what we have pending. What we have pending is a total transformation, this one [that will be discussed in Monday's hearing] comes from the working group with the administration and the work that has been done over the past couple of years.

There were two items that we thought we had some general agreement about across stakeholders: one was the $100,000 tax exemption, both on the gross and net, for small businesses, and the second is single source piece that would help manufacturers offset their competitiveness [by cutting income tax on products and services sold outside of the city, to help exporting businesses]. We beleive that we can get the support the two pieces, two of the pieces in the bigger piece of legislation.

Has the Chamber of Commerce supported these changes? They’ve been among the most critical of your efforts around tax reform, saying it creates ‘winners and losers.’

We’re going to meet with the Chamber again before the hearing and have met with them before the summer. Bill [Green] and I met with their executive team and heard their concerns around some of the legislation.

I think we can get some support, if not complete support, from the Chamber because this represents a higher tax reduction than plans for a gross receipts reduction. And this is more targeted because the beneficiaries are overwhelming Philadelphia-based businesses.

This represents anywhere from a 12-15 percent tax reduction versus such minor reduction in the mills on the gross receipts.

More than ‘winners and losers,’ Councilman Jim Kenney said the legislation was a ‘dangerous experiment,‘ that wasn’t worth taking. Has he come out to support your changes?

I think this is better. We met with Councilman Kenney. He agreed to support us on this $100k part in a more complete way, so we’re both going to be supportive of some of his legislation and get a hearing ourselves [on the tax reform].

Into the first half of the last century, your district once had one of the densest collections of manufacturing jobs in the world. From the 1950 to 1980, that industrial half of the city lost 300,000 jobs, as the Inquirer reported. So for you, the export help for what remains of manufacturing in Philadelphia matters.

That single source part [where businesses would only pay net income taxes on income derived in the city, not non-City sales] is a little more difficult in that it costs the city a lot more over the five year roll-out plan. That’s what we’re talking to the administration about.

It’s really important though. There are still jobs to lose. I met with two manufactures in my district who were, like, ‘I’m out.’ Now, the [business privilege tax] was one element and storm-water management [fees from the Water Department] was another, and we’re working with them, but I feel very strongly that we have to send a message — even if we postpone implementing that a year away — so at least that manufacturers know some relief is coming.

One part of the problem is keeping what businesses we have, but another part is the training a new workforce. How have you taken on the issue of digital divide in your district?

It’s very challenging, but we’ve done really well. We have close to a dozen of the digital labs through the stimulus package. Just last week, we did a grand opening at Prevention Point, which is my controversial needle exchange program in West Kensington. It’s already heavily used by their clients.

We’ve tried to partner with the city’s IT department and Philly Fight to get to underserved constituents. We’re trying to open one more.

Opening up computer centers in poor communities is a good first step, not a solution. What are you doing to engage these underserved communities?

The way we’ve located the centers and the partners we’ve had are choices to focus on the constituents we’re tring to reach. The homeless man may not go into the library because he doesn’t feel comfortable there, but, because he is a client at Prevention Point, he might get online there. Once there, we’re focusing on real training on computers and use for job searches.

Now, at our library at 6th and Lehigh, we expanded their computer center through one of these grants because of increased volume, but it’s about trying to meet people where they’re at, rather than just having them come to us.

Because libraries are usually small, we try to find new places, and we can interact with new people there too. Some of the steps we need are just education and awareness of what computer services are out there and what you can do with online access.

Is reforming tax policy to retain and attract business and reaching out to the poorest and most vulnerable fellow citizens around technology enough to connect people with jobs in your district and the rest of Philadelphia?

I still believe we have a ways to go to put together a comprehensive workforce strategy in the city. We had hearings a few weeks ago of the [City Council] Committee on Commerce and Economic Development with the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation as they merge with the Workforce Investment Board. We’re concerned with what we heard.

What is concerning?

There have been huge cuts at the state level, so I think the city needs to get smarter about how it uses its labor force development money. You’re going to see us, through the Committee of Commerce, more engaged in that public discussion.

What are the drastic cuts at the state level — for the Workforce Development Corporation, they lost 90 employees and are down to 120 staff people — going to do to how we work, how are we engaging employers to get involved in our programs?

The move at the state level is to subsidize private businesses more,. by saying, ‘let people hire them and let the subsidy go to the business.’ It could be helpful if it’s being targeted to the innovative businesses. So part of the discussion is how we make that connection happen.

The Workforce Development Corporation — and I worked there in a previous life — tends to follow kind of the traditional, larger firms. How do we ensure small businesses can tap into that, so those subsidies touch our re-entry community and other places that could be missed?

When I was at Prevention Point, I talked to the clients. Even the hotels ask housekeepers to log into work with handheld computer systems so we need to give our people the basics, just familiarity with computers. Social media has helped tremendously, to get people aware. You may not have a home, but you have an email address. You may not have a home, but you have a Facebook page.

But then taking that to the next level, you need those skills, if you’re a cashier or if you’re a housekeeper. The very basic understanding is important.

With the maturing of the web has come a need for greater performance tracking. While the technology community is embracing the open data movement, an overwhelmed city seems to still be lagging behind. Do you see that? Is it unavoidable?

Part of the challenge in the city is that while we want to embrace transparency, we have not put out the resources necessary at the table. 311 was off the shelf technology. 311 is still operating with Hansen [database system] on one side from L&I and the Streets Department technology on the other. That’s kept them limited, and I know that’s something they’ve looked at.

I know on the capital side, IT has a lot of money, and I think we have been slow – to put it nicely — to utilize those resources to get a more comprehensive 311 PhillyStat program, where the data drives the performance. I think 311 has gotten much better, once it figured out how the data could interface, but we’re still dealing with limited technology. Apparently there is an RFP out and I’m looking forward to seeing talk of its new design.

You’ve taken steps to bring the performance management data into City Council.

One of the things I’ve proposed in Council that didn’t move and hope we can push the new president of City Council to push would be to introduce a CouncilStat like New York, that would allow us to interface with the city’s data through our eyes. One of the things I hear when talking to my colleauges in New York and Chicago and other places is that they really use their CouncilStat to drive their budget conversations.

So that if the Streets Department says ‘We’re going to have the capacity to fill 10,000 potholes,’ but there is a 30,000 pothole backlog, we can say ‘that’s not enough.’ Right now we don’t have that. We are totally beholden to the city on the data.

What I’d like to see in Council — this could be done cheaply, the Council piece in New York, the setup costs were maybe $100,000 to $150,000 and maintaining it was $40,000 a year — is the ability for us to be able to be sure that the departments are dropping the data to us, that we could check in on that and use GPS and other ways to measure success, that’s huge.

Whether that data is being shared publicly and real-time with you, the public or the Managing Director’s office through PhillyStat, there needs to be real buy in. We’ve found the biggest problem is sheer workflow problems, not having the people to get this data secure, stable and out in an API or something like it.

That’s not true. We have deputy commissioners of administration who have fought to give up this territory.

I think the Mayor is creating more political will to say ‘we have to have this call for transparency.’ There’s no reason that we can’t see this data in his next term, and see it in real time. Even if he doesn’t want to see it all out there, to see more of it in a public platform. We need to see in real time that we’re missing our goals in real time.

In the initial conversations about 311, a department can say it’s going to take 72 hours, but there’s no way of knowing if that’s true. Unless it’s a performance management tool, what does it matter? It needs to be real time.

Collecting and sharing data in a real-time fashion, like a dependable API, is an absolute priority, particularly because there are people in the technology community who want to build interesting tools and visualizations on their own with it. There’s some interest but it seems like each agency is waiting for someone else to be the first.

Yes, we haven’t had a lot of progress because we can’t get the departments on board early, because once you put that data out there, they have to stand by it. One of the things I learned very early on is never ask a question you don’t have an answer to. I hate, too, whenever you have to put it on the record for building the record, so I understand, but we all need to do a better job of explaining why this matters.

Things like the OpenDataRace and the recent SEPTA hackathon should help that cause. What helped you see the value of releasing data in malleable formats?

So, we can connect SEPTA routes to the litter index. My litter index — tracked by Neighborhood Services at the Streets Department — has been reduced tremendously in my district.

[We did that with data.]

So we looked when I first started, one of the things I found was that I had 50 public trash cans [in my district], now we’re close to 400. We did an overlay for the placement of trash and bus routes. Where did the most trash happen? In the congruence of bus routes and mass transit. So taking streets data and SEPTA data and learning that can teach us things [to govern better].

From Front to Second Street, we’ve learned that we don’t need a bus stop because we can’t put a trash can there and people can walk that half block either way. If we’re sharing data from all of our agencies, this can happen in more ways. I wouldn’t have been able to see that if I couldn’t ask for and see a combination of data.

We looked at where SEPTA sold tokens, and they didn’t in my poorest communities where people could afford the full price the least. We need to have all these quasi departments and all the agencies offering the ability for us to crunch data and better leverage the limited resources we have. We can get smarter about how we’re doing things.

Lastly, in our redistricting coverage, your district kept being named as among the worst irregular, how do you feel about the change?

The district is going to look a lot better. I think we had some real challenges that the data showed us around the shift of populations,

We saw where the city has to do a more focused job of repopulating the community, and areas where I’m busting at the seems and the Northeast is too. I think we’re at a better place, but I’d like for Council to utilize its ability to redistrict at any time to be willing to shift these lines as necessary.

One thing I told folks is that a more compact district also means a more concentrated district in terms of poverty, so I didn’t get an easier district. As much as the political pundits spoke about getting an easier district, I got a more challenging district.

I looked at the census, and the median income, I’m sure, was reduced. I already had 44 percent of my district under $20,000, and with the loss of the more stable parts of my district, with the demographic shifts — I picked up some large African American communities which was also helpful in the changing areas — this is more work.

…And we learned that with data.

Edited, July 4, 2011, 10:08 a.m.: Carnaroli was elected on June 10, not during the third week of June.

We’re not sure when Craig Carnaroli sleeps.

He’s Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania, he’s Chair of the University City District and he serves on the boards of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, Penn Medicine, and The Connelly Foundation.

Whatever free time he might have had will be partially eaten up by his new role as Chairman of the Board of the University City Science Center, after being elected to the position on June 10.

Now, the Wharton alum says that he’s leveraging his roles to strengthen Penn’s relationship to the rest of University City, and helping to create connections across the various institutions.

And a big part of that connection is physical. Carnaroli led the development of Penn Connects master plan, which he says will help bring together the institutions through the built environment of University City and West Philadelphia, with initiatives like Penn Park.

We spoke to Carnaroli by phone to talk about how the built environment can ultimately impact Philadelphia’s technology community, and more, after the jump.

You’ve served on the board of the Science Center since 2005. What have you been up to and what do you want to see change?

One of the important things we’ve achieved over the last 5 years is reconnecting the Science Center to its “shareholder” academic institutions. I particularly want to continue to endorse how we get commercialization opportunities that are worthwhile of incubating, get funding behind them, and as they grow, we have space to help them grow. We’ve seen a number of good examples at the Science Center, like Avid Radiopharmaceuticals.

Avid is a good example because even after investment, it will remain in the city. There was a ChicagoBusiness Crain’s Special Report recently was about how large companies in the suburbs there are wanting, and are, relocating back to the city.

I think it’s something we should strive for. There are challenges with the city’s tax structure. That’s an inhibitor because it’s a challenge that’s not easily rectified. But we need to get away from the tax argument to the benefits we have, like access to post-docs from various academic institutions. Young folks like the urban environment, so how we can take advantage of that? It would be great to build up the city’s tax base.

You serve on a number of boards of directors, including the University City District, PIDC and Penn Medicine. How do these connections help the Science Center?

It’s important [for Penn] as the largest private employer that we’re engaged with partners. One of the things that I see in Philadelphia is great leadership running these organizations. The boards are committed. My work with Science Center is largely around making sure that there is a connection to all of these institutions. Part of it is putting a vision out there, trying to get people to buy into that vision.

You’re often involved with urban development at Penn and in your various board roles. How important is the built environment to the future of University City?

I came to Penn in 2000 in a finance role, and I was later asked to see a broader portfolio—facilities, real estate and other operations. One of the thing they asked me to lead was this campus master plan, Penn Connects. We’re trying to improve our partnerships, like with Brandywine Realty Trust, which has helped to build out some of the eastern edge [of the campus]. Penn Park coming online will be another example of the connectedness.

The Science Center board is an interesting choice for you given your focus on urban development. Why science and technology, too?

If you look at what drives the economy and what will drive innovation, technology is very important. There’s a lot of things to exploit at these institutions. I view my role as a connector of ideas and opportunities, so given that we’ve received the largest amount of research funding of any university in the area, it’s good to have Penn’s presence and involvement there. We also want to make sure that faculty have access to commercialize their discoveries.

We’re increasingly curious about job retention in Philadelphia, and we hate to see a Wharton alum, like yourself, leave the city. How did you end up here, and do you have any thoughts on how to keep talent?

Data is showing that we’re doing a better job retaining grads. In the end, we’re linking people with opportunities for being able to be employed. I had the bug. I went to New York and San Francisco. These are great places to be, with great mentors, but for me, ultimately all roads lead back to Philly. I had a great opportunity at Penn. In terms of retaining people, to be honest, it’s efforts like Technically Philly telling so many great stories out there not being told.

One our students founded a company and was incubated at Science Center. When he needed next round of funding, the investor said ‘we want you to move to Silicon Valley.’ On one hand it’s so great that we produced this guy, but on other hand we’re bummed that he relocated.

Sometimes, the factors aren’t always in our control.

Our friends at It’s Our Money compiled the taxes and fees that Mayor Michael Nutter could raise.

CLICK THROUGH TO SEE THE FULL LIST OF PHILADELPHIA TAXES

Mike Lyons, who runs the blog West Philly Local, sits on a bench at Locust and 40th streets.

The following is a report done in partnership with Temple University’s Philadelphia Neighborhoods Program, the capstone class for the Temple Journalism Department.

Mike Lyons and his wife run West Philly Local, a blog that covers news in West Philadelphia.

His site has been up for just three months and gets a modest 800 to 900 unique visitors a day. Although Lyons hopes to monetize the site in the future, it has yet to make any profit.

For bloggers like Lyons, the year-long dispute concerning the city’s so-called ‘blogger tax’ has caused a great deal of confusion.

But new legislation introduced by Councilman Bill Green could keep Lyons and other hobbyists, including bloggers, from being required to apply and pay for a city business privilege license.

In case you missed it, the controversy began last summer when a round of letters from the City of Philadelphia began to ask bloggers (who disclosed on federal tax returns income from blogs) that they apply for the city’s $50 one-year or $300 lifetime business privilege license.  These letters were sent to some who made far less money from their blog than the cost of the license itself, many of them characterized their websites as hobby, like Lyons does for now.

“This is an old city with some old ways of doing things, and they’re running right into an economy they’re not used to dealing with and they’re trying to apply old laws to these new things,” said Lyons of the so called ‘blogger tax.’

However calling it a tax is rather misleading.

Watch Green and others discuss the legislation in this video:

“There isn’t a ‘blogger tax’ currently. There is a business privilege tax and a related requirement to get the privilege license. This applies to all business activity conducted in the city,” said Sophie Bryan, Councilman Green’s chief of staff. “The stigma of ‘blogger tax’ is therefore also a misrepresentation because it does not just affect blogs but all activities that could be classified as hobbies.”

Councilman Bill Green in his fifth floor offices at City Hall. Green has proposed legislation that would end the so-called 'blogger tax.'

Councilman Green has proposed bill 100754, which came out the finance committee last month, that he says would end this confusion and put a stop to the so-called ‘blogger tax.’

The bill would create a legal distinction for a hobby that nets less than $3,000 annually, making it exempt from the business privilege license.

Bloggers and hobbyists who would claim that small an amount of revenue could complete a form for certification by the Revenue Department, which would have the burden to prove otherwise.

“We just wanted to have a clear, simple and easy process for hobbyists and anybody in the creative community to have a simple form they can fill out that says ‘This is a hobby. It’s not a business. I’m not going to claim a federal deduction and therefore don’t have to get a business privilege license,” Green said.

Councilman Green also said he wants the city’s desire to retain and support its creative community to be as plain as the legislation.

Phillygrrl.com blogger Kishwer Vikaas types on her laptop at South Fourth and Bainbridge streets.

“We want [creative people] here and we want to say Philadelphia is open for business and make that really clear,” Green said.

This message is not lost on the blogging community.

“I think it’s very important, “said Kishwer Vikaas of the legislation. Vikaas, a law student at Temple, runs the Philadelphia blog phillygrrl.com which focuses on the city’s South Asian population. Vikaas describes her activities with the blog as purely recreational.

“If I started to blog and found out there was some way I could be penalized for it I would hesitate or go a different route,” said Vikaas.

The legislation goes along with a continued push to reform the city’s business tax codes which Green says are ‘excessively burdensome.’

The bill has received the support of the Revenue Department and could be voted on as early as today.

• Navy, economic development groups sign pact [PhillyBurbs.com] — “The U.S. Navy has formed a partnership with three business development groups to foster collaboration with small businesses, educational institutions and nonprofit groups and increase energy-related developments at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.”
• Q&A with Mark Alan Hughes [Flying Kite] The Penn State Professor leading the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster, also located at the Navy Yard
• Two Philly Firms Named to Global Water Industry Honor Roll [Keystone Edge] — BlackGold Biofuels and NovaThermal Energy were named to the Top 50 Water Companies list
• ‘Blogger tax’ goes before council [Metro] — We’ll have more details next week
• Philadelphia Water Department to adopt water infrastructure capital planning software [Water World]
• Philadelphia’s Greatest And Most Anticipated Food Website Coming Soon [Phoodie] — “Tacodelphia“
• Many could be interested in Cubist [Business Journal]

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscri ption for our Comcast news updates.

• Comcast to FCC: Keep Hulu info secret [Politico] — “According to a letter placed in the commission’s public file on Wednesday, the company contends that a document it will soon file with the FCC detailing its deal with the Internet site that shows NBC and other network programming is too sensitive for the public to see.”
• Comcast Has Been To My House 12 Times, Still No Cable [Consumerist]
• Comcast tops in adding broadband subs [Fierce Cable] — “…Comcast more than doubled its nearest competitor, AT&T, by adding one million net broadband customers over the course of the last year.”
• Comcast Begins Effort to Launch 10 Independent Networks [Comcast blog] — A call to support 10 ethnic and racially diverse  stations
• 5 Ways GE Plays the Tax Game [ProPublica] — How the deal with Comcast for NBC affects