>> philadelphia, winning! inside story starts now. # >> good morning i'm matt o'donnell. sunday february 15 we say philadelphia is winning because it is winning. let's meet our insiders of the week, sharmaine matlock-turner, christine flowers attorney, good morning, christine. >> good morning. >> padro ramos. val degeorgeo. head of the chester county gop. pope francis is coming and philadelphia will host the

philadelphia democratic national convention. >> i'm prowled to announce that the -- proud to announce that the democratic convention will be hosted in the wonderful city of philadelphia. >> philadelphia beat out columbus ohio, which i i guess is few close to cleveland where the republicans are going to have their convention. they also it -- they said the role in shaping philadelphia history was unmatched and the comprehensive plan that the city put together. the new york times headline, talking about this news and the as to her was published yesterday. i quote with convention, philadelphia scores rare win over new york. let me read one more thing here. love is a rare win in the heated rivalry that most philadelphians

feel passionate about. and many new yorkers ignore. >> it's like the eagles dallas cowboys back in the 70s. we hated dallas. we were like the gnat on the tail of the elephant. it is like we have more vested than new york does. but it feels great. >> new yorkers came to philadelphia and loved us so much they stayed around led by our former mayor and governor, red rendell who was who a big part of making this happen. >> look at all the things that will happen. no one would call me a liberal. i'm a philadelphian before i am a politician or have partisan affinity. this coming to the city will be wonderful. after the pope, but i meant to offer my free immigration

services for those conservatives who want to file for asylum. >> as republican party chairman i'll be out of town that week. i think it is tremendous it speaks well to the leadership in the town. comcast on board ed rendell and josh shapiro and the republicans chipping in to help. i'm thrilled for the city. we have to make sure that we cappize on it going forward -- capitalize on it going forward. i don't think we did a good job of it last time. >> there are clearly political benefits they believe we can raise the money in philadelphia. this is a city that the republican national convention live 8 was an enormous event the pope's visit ten months before, gives you a great chance to iron out any imperfections and new york has had it's own image issues recently.

philadelphia is a great choice. >> do you think that played a factor bill de blasio and the problems he's had. >> i think some commentators acid there was a lot of confusion going on especially between the new mayor and the police department at a time when security is absolutely critical for these kinds of events that having that kind of division could ultimately be a problem. i want to disagree with val just a little bit on philadelphia capital icing on big events. one of the reasons we're in the running for the pope's visit and the dnc was because the city has continue to capitalize on its image, you look at the television shows that reference or use philadelphia as a backdrop, i think we are doing a good job to mark it to the country. >> with the dnc we made it, val

wherewithal was yesterday we woo'd the committee. i'm wondering if new york sat on her laurels because new york is new york, i think philadelphia showed that we wanted these groups and organizations to come here. >> what do you think about what this might do for governor tom wolf's political career, padro? >> certainly gives him a national platform, a little time for the world to see what's accomplishing in pennsylvania. he has had a a couple of bumps in his tenure here, all these e his reports about awe then tiflt and really -- authenticity and getting people on board and reaching people out to the people across the aisle opening up the governor house to people

who never visited before, i think that's a good image for democrats national. >> does he roll his jeep into the wells fargo center? >> absolutely. i think he would have to. >> let me ask you about what you think about the hillary clinton factor i guess she is the frontrunner. philadelphia is a good fit for her, not only did she beat barack obama in the pennsylvanian primary back in 2008. her father is from extra -- scranton. >> her son-in-law is from this region. >> i think a lot of it had to do with location and media market. this is is a very important location, a lot of people can get here, there's a lot of media that's going to come to this. we're in a wonderful place to show and showcase the democrats with the backdrop of america's founding. i do think that location had a lot to do with it and our

ability to handle security. >> and pennsylvania will be in play again it looks like, although it leans democrat. >> do you think so? they say it every time. >> if you get governor christie southeastern pennsylvania he'll be very popular there. pennsylvania could be in play, better here than new york, which is out of the equation. >> if you remember in 2012, the conventionals were held in two states with the respective nominees lost. north carolina, barack obama lost that, tampa florida and mitt romeny. sometimes with the strategicness it doesn't come out. we'll see. let's talk about the mayor's rails. we'll have a new mayor by the time this convention comes to town. another name to add to the list, doug oliver served as mayor nutter's spokesman and executive for pgw. a number of people don't think he has a chance. he doesn't have a whole lot of

governmental and he do. this race is crowded. milton street. anthony williams, sam katz told me he reregistered as an independent. else thinking about running later on in the election and doesn't have to go through a primary. >> how do you think the race is shaping up? >> typically by this time you have a clear frontrunner that's different than in years past. we need someone to speak up for the business community on that side. somebody needs needs to grab that mantel. john cast cast steel. local republicans would like to see him get in.

>> i think he said no. >> he wants to be woo'd i'm hearing. >> whomp the next mayor -- whoever the next mayor is going to be will be looking at dha and what decision they might wants to make in that job i do thing that one of the things by not having quote unquote what is considered the frontrunner there's no question that tony williams is in the lead. >> kenny is a close second? >> we haven't seen any polls. it will be interesting to see where the polls come out. if things are in flux it gives the voters an opportunities to get into a conversation. what's going to happen with the business community. what are we going to do about poverty and job creation in the city. i hope because we can't just talk about political personalities, we'll spends more time talking about issues. >> and track records, as well.

i said this on the panel before, with respect to judge abraham lynn abraham she has such a historical foothold in the city of philadelphia. with doug oliver coming out, he is talks about galvonizing the under 30s and framing this as an advantage. i don't think philadelphians are sort of attracted by that whole idea of the newness of it. they want someone who has experience and someone who has a high profile. i think anthony williams has that, i think he's got a lot of -- he's got history with the with the city, as well. i see lynn abraham as the frontrunner in the pack. i don't see counselman kenny. she is one everyone knows in terms of name recognition. >> i think she has been polling

well since she got in. i think the news media and the media in general will have to play a big role in this election there's not a lot of mean e money, there will be a competition people will have to press on the hard questions and what we're getting right now are polled sound bites through statements and spokes people. she should get on to the substance and posing hard questions in public ways and making sure sure we're listening carefully, otherwise what you end up with is pandering and bad decisions that come back to by the us like the pension fund has. >> we would love to have them all here for a debate. >> all you candidates out there, we're calling you 6abc, we'll get a date, we'll deptly try to get a debate here. >> we'll be glad to be there. >> we'll have a lot of chairs,

though. let's talk about governor wolf he came up in our discussion about the convention. i stopped by chester county where val is from talking about the natural gas severance tax and schools now wolf wants to impose a 5% severance tax on drilling companies which would take the place of the state's impact fee and this raise he throws the numbers out of here, 300 to 400 million in a 30 billion-dollar budget. the proceeds would largely go to education, but the republicans and val maybe you can address this aren't so keen about raising taxes but they have the state liquor store privatization bill that could be used as a shell game. >> liquor privatization will run in the next a couple of weeks out of the house. senator jay coreman said we have

a lifetime opportunity sitting on one of the biggest reserves of natural gas in the world. we could decide to play big ball go for the home run and hardness that gallons and build pipelines or tax the industry, play small ball and get money into the budget. he said if governor wolf wants to play small ball, that's the same old tired sort of policy that we've seen from the left. interesting he i used a model after west virginia that has sluggish growth and unemployment problems. move toward energy independence, bring good-paying jobs, rather than tax the industry that brought $2 billion in the commonwealth over the last couple of years. >> i think the right is on the wrong sideful both of these issues the severance tax and the state stores. the governor ran on this platform, this is not a surprise, this is not something

that he just came up with, he went before the voters of the state and said this is important we're like the second largest producer of natural gas most people believe that's going to continue and we have a really big problem as it relates to paying for education. seems like those two things working together makes sense. the only problem i have with the state store question right now we have the most efficient system in an act that paying close to half a billion dollars. >> but the customers don't like it. >> traditionally people have said that, i haven't heard that recently. it is an efficient system, you go in you pay the money goes directly to the commonwealth and there's no collection and it is an asset that's paying off to the state. >> it's netting 18 80 to the state in profits. do you sell $180 million for a

billion. put that money into education give people the option to go to supermarket and buy beer and wine. make it more convenient. >> we got to go. >> there's the enthusiasm in the senate that there is in the house. that's the big question. >> we'll be back with more understand inside story.

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>> time for inside story the philadelphia school district it's like a broken record every year, saying they have a deficit, yes they have another one projecting it to be $80 million that's with governor would feel factoring in increasing funding for estate. padro ramos was chair of the school reform commission, i want to get your reaction. the 80 million dorls number that's the coast of doing what's going on now next year. it's not what dr. william hite thinks is necessary to move forward with the plan you're talking over $300 million. that means in harrisburg we need a best case scenario that at best gets a couple of hundred million dollars to philadelphia if you fix the system or the charter funding and then it means those running for mayor we have to make choices in philadelphia about whether we'll

continue to have not have the school system we want and do other things and make trade off here at home. >> sounds like it's a big problem and it needs a big solution and there are not any people looking for big solutions. >> there's anonymity that appears between communities and civic leaders and business community that there needs to be more money. there's not agreement where the money needs to come from. you cannot have a world-class education system in philadelphia without putting more funds. we have tough decision where do we spend the money and how the system works for everybody but there needs to be more money. >> there needs to be a new approach. it can't always be more money and there are folks in harrisburg on both sides of the aisle, i spoke to the speaker a half-hour ago, we have to get children out of schools that are not performing well, whether they are traditional public schools or charter schools that

are not performing well and put them into a better classroom. the philadelphia school partnership ponied up $35 million to help with transition costs to move kids to charter schools where it's warranted. 39 of a -- applicants, exists schools want to expand into different grades and more grades and take in more children. that vote will be for the src in the next couple of weeks. as partly of the cigarette tax john taylor and the majority leader told the src you need to consider these applications. 14 of these charter school applicants performed better than the state average. it's now to move the children into better-performing schools. >> i like what val is saying, you have to have a holistic

approach you have to look at the kids what's going to serve their interest better not the specific special interest of the school district or charter schools or vouchers we've talked about in the past. the bottom line is what are the better performing schools and what's going to serve the interest of the kids better. >> let's talk about the presidential race on the republican side the weekly standard calls for a weeding out of gop presidential field. the author of this column doesn't like mike huckabee, rand paul and new new jersey chris christie. that is what he wrote the secrets, the meals the concerts, the parties with celebrityies, he is a man striving to live out the fantasy of a teenage boy. 53% of new jerseyians have an

unfavorable view of christy. >> compared to what he said about huckabee and paul, that was flattering. >> it's on point it's showing stylistic problems with the candidates. it's not going to the heart of their candidacy it's talking about christy his style, he is trying to to be a man of the people, but yet poneying up to king abdullah and bruce springsteen and jerry jones let's not talk about that and mike huckabee was making major gaffe talking about homosexuality and placing it, framing it as a vice which he believes you're not going to win an election on the national level. >> it's a long way off. they haven't had debates yet. christie has had a bad month or so, people are not talking about

him the way they were. the european trip was a disaster for him. he got involved in the vaccine issue. he needs to get better handling. >> is it him or his people? >> i think it's both. >> it's a big field there are great folks out there folks like scott walker emerging, catching fire among the grassroots, jeb bush there's a lot of folks and there's a lot of time yet. >> what do you think. i must admit i'm enjoying christy descend but on a more serious note i think whether it's those three candidates or it is republican candidates, the difficult will be to try to give as clear a message always val did a few minutes ago how do you support the interests of the working families and the middle

class, how do you make sure that those who are struggling and trying to make ends meet each and everyday have real opportunities. i think the candidates are trying to figure out how to have that conversations. the question is going to be what policy are you going to support. >> we'll get your inside story padro, if we let you comment we won't. we'll be right back. one, get your free online valuation. two, book an appointment. and three, pick up a check at your nearest buying center. ♪ find out how much your car is worth ♪ ♪ at webuyanycar.com ♪

>> inside stories of the week we start with sharmaine. >> it is tax season we have a lot of things to celebrate, one of the things we're working is making sure sure we get taxes done for free for hard working pennsylvanians. if you want to volunteer go to tax volunteer auae.org. >> there's been a lot of talk about electing judges and there's oppositions about electing judges and how great it is to nominate judges. there's a controversy accruing

with the judge on the commonwealth court who was not recommended by the bar association judicial committee she has challenged them. i think it's good we're trying to determine whether or not it's better for the people to make a determination or trial lawyers to make a determination about a qualification. judge. >> pension adjustment factor, mayor nutter this week came out and accused jim kenny of being responsible for a 2006 law that was passed and overridden john street's veto was over ridden. it cost the pension fund $62 million. the pension fund had a big hole drilled it in back in 2006. this is something that every candidate should be asked about. because it's a canary in the

coal mine for our ability to manager the pension fund. >> we know about rob mckort's properties. maybe we should not elect pennsylvania treasurers any more. the treasurer does nothing but collect money and pay it out why do we need to elect treasures. we're getting a new set. that's why thing like different. inside story returns next week. >> i'm nydia han along with eva pilgrim. coming up on "action news," strong winds and below freezing temperatures led to power outages flight cancellations and speed restrictions in the area. strong winds wreaked havoc for one delaware county family after a massive tree fell on their home. >> we'll tell you about the new regulations taking to the sky.

those stories and more on "action news."

at perdue, we know fresh chicken. well, not that kind of fresh. but we do take extra steps in our farms, trucks that deliver daily and everywhere in between... ... to bring you a fresh tasting chicken. perdue. we believe in a better chicken. >> good afternoon, it is sunday february 15 i'm nydia han along with eva pilgrim. >> here's some of the stories we're following on "action news." the whipping winds are being blamed for knocking down a huge tree