Former mayor defends Reading’s Act 47 status

by Steve Reinbrecht

Last week, Reading Mayor Wally Scott blamed predecessor Tom McMahon, who served Jan. 5, 2004, to Jan. 2, 2012, for the city’s financial problems.

Real-long-time Reading Eagle City Hall Reporter Don Spatz duly reported Scott’s dissing of McMahon during his rambling hour-plus State of the City speech, but didn’t ask McMahon to respond. That’s shoddy reporting no editor should accept.

“He [Scott] said former Mayor Tom McMahon put the city in the financial stress it's in, and got it into Act 47, so the city's problems are the fault of this council and that mayor,” Spatz wrote.

In response, former Mayor Tom McMahon said Saturday that Scott doesn’t understand the city’s position.

“He clearly has not understood the financial history of the city, including budgets, contracts, pensions, negotiated or arbitrated settlements over the past 30 years, or he would know at least some of the reasons why act 47 made so much sense,” he wrote in an e-mail.

McMahon referred to then-state-Economic Development Secretary George Cornelius’ remarks about his decision to accept Reading into Act 47.

In November, 2009, Cornelius told Reading leaders:

“Act 47 isn’t a cure; it’s merely life support. Don’t sit back and think some state coordinator will fix things, or that the problems will resolve themselves. If Reading is to thrive as a vibrant economic driver for Berks County, if the city is to be self-sustaining, everyone in Berks County will have to work hard to make it happen.”

McMahon said he still believes the city needed to enter the Act 47 program.

“But I don't believe he [Scott] has the capacity to be able to visualize how to emerge from Act 47. 

“It was meant to give us a breather to avoid bankruptcy, which any sane person would want the city to avoid.

“It will be hard to replace the revenue stream it brought.

“I actually feel sorry for him in a way that he does not seem to have the tools to be able to deal with the job at hand.”

McMahon said Scott doesn’t understand Act 47, including the benefits it brought to the city by way of commuter tax.

“Wally's first month of childish blathering does not bode well for this city.”