Economy League toasts its 100th anniversary

January 12, 2010

Mike Armstrong, Philadelphia Inquirer

What does it say about a group founded 100 years ago to analyze and prod the City of Philadelphia into becoming more efficient that many of the issues it long ago tackled have yet to be solved?

To Steve Wray, it means that the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia has been engaged in "hard work." "Nobody ever said it would be easy," said the nonprofit group's executive director.

Tonight, about 100 people are expected to gather at a Center City restaurant to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Economy League. (The actual centennial was December 2009, but given a choice between hanging out at a holiday party or one for policy wonks, which do you think draws the crowd?)

The Economy League as we know it is the result of the 1954 merger of two organizations: The Pennsylvania Economy League, founded in 1936, and the Bureau of Municipal Research of Philadelphia, founded in 1909 by a group of businessmen.

Across the country, the creation of municipal research bureaus was a response to concerns that city governments needed to act more professionally. Much of government now has been professionalized, but many of the issues that the Economy League had sought to change remain the same: inaccurate property assessments, pension insolvency, and the elimination of elected row-office leaders.

Communications director Allison Kelsey faxed over a smattering of the group's "Citizens' Business" publications as proof.

One, from 1924, was critical of property assessors "who do their work without uniformity of method, and largely by rule of thumb." Only now is City Council taking aiming at the Board of Revision of Taxes.

It's demoralizing that such problems have been allowed to fester and grow even as the number of watchdog organizations has grown.

The Economy League isn't shrinking from the fight, but it has been evolving. Many of its recent initiatives are more aspirational advocacy, trying to shift Philadelphia's mindset to the great possibilities of the future rather than listing its dismal performance by historical measures.

One hundred years after Economy League's founding, there is still a need for its objective analysis of how things work, don't work, or might work in this region.

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