Drink Tax - Property Tax Debacle - Government Out of Control - Region On Verge of Collapse
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The Allegheny County Council has decided to disregard the rule-of-law and circumvent the Home Rule Charter by trying to nullify the citizens right to referendum and self-government.
Allegheny County, and the City of Pittsburgh are essentially in financial ruins and the only solution they have suggested is RAISING TAXES. They have never once considered reducing taxes or expenses. Imagine if we ran our households this way?
Lets look at some recent history......
- The Port Authority is supposed to provide public transportation, yet the system is a ghost of it's former self.
- service has been drastically reduced,
- fees are one of the highest in the nation.
- retirement compensation for young retirees is out of line with business averages.
- They spent $400 million to dig a transit tunnel when they could have saved millions by using the existing Ft. Wayne Railroad Bridge AND extended the light-rail to the West to the suburbs and the Airport for the same amount of money!
- Every concert, football game, symphany, baseball game you pay 500% more in taxes than going to a similar event outside the City and County, such as at Star Lake Amphitheater or the Washington Wild-Things game.
- For every dollar that is made by businesses running parking in Pittsburgh, the City expropriates 50% of that for the Citys black-hole budget. This is preposterous!!!!!
- What about the multi-million dollar give-away to Lord & Taylor that exceeded $20 million dollars and provided tax deferrments? They went out of business, remember, and left in it's wake the destruction of one of the most important culturally and unique architectural landmarks in the nation: the Mellon Bank lobby.
- What about Lazarus? The City paid over $50 million to have a fully occupied 24-story office building demolished and half of a city block demolished to move a department store 4 blocks, only to have them go out of business as well.
- Remember, the voters rejected a half-billion dollar Stadium deal. Now what happens when the Rooneys sell the Steelers? Who pays the bill?
- Now Mario and the Penguins have bellied-up to the trough! Hold onto your pocketbooks!
- Sales taxes in Allegheny County are 20% higher than our neighbors in Beaver, Washington, Westmoreland, and Butler Counties. We rejected the tax, remember, but they still rammed it down our throats.
- And while we are on the 20% higher sales taxes, remember the funds were supposed to go to "regional assets"...libraries, museums... but are, in essence, being laundered to private company bank-accounts owned by the millionairs McClatchy (now Robert Nutting) and Rooney!!!!!
- How about the $12 million dollar give-a-way to PNC Bank to build a new office building that, again, only shifts tenants from one building to another, a government sponsored shell-game.
- What the millions given to Alcoa to move it's headquarters across the river? And how did they show their gratitude? By dumping their old building off onto the non-profit community AND moving all of their chief executives to the real headquarters in New York.
- And while we're on non-profits, the City has the audacity to extort money from our philantropic community and the largest employer in the region: the University of Pittsburgh. If Pitt wasn't here, there would be a hell of a lot more poor people here.
- And lets not forget the Casino boondoggle. What genius gives a gambling license to an insolvent company run by a guy who has over $15 million in personal gambling debts when the largest, most financially-sound publicly-traded-stock-owned gaming concern in the world (Harrah's) was rejected?
This has been the status-quo for over 40 years. Pittsburgh and the County continue to do the same thing over and over again but expect different results every time. Isn't that the definition of insanity?
A good start would be:
- Privatization of the Port Authority
- Elimination of Redundancies (aka Allegheny County Police, Port Authority Police, Housing Authority Police, all which can be covered by municipal departments)
- Reduction of County Bureaucracy
- Reduction of business and personal taxes.
- Rigid spending cap on the budget, limited to a maximum of 2% a year.
- Drastic reduction of property tax.
If you notice, the attitude of the County and the City is entirely focused on how to get more money from YOU. Now there is a cry to merge City and County governments. This will essentially nullify our local governments and force us into a sinking metropolitan morass. Higher taxes, less service, more government.
Never once do you hear anyone say that they should reduce government spending and reduce the tax burden.
Western Pennsylvania is a sinking ship, with the anchor of big government pulling it down. The only way we can get out of this morass is to free ourselves.
Support the citizens right to petition and referendum by supporting the citizens efforts to put the Drink Tax on the ballot for US to decide.
Contact your State Representative and Senator to complain that the County Council is attempting to nullify your rights.
And send a strong message to the County and City that higher taxes will not be tolerated any longer.
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Dear Ron:
You score a few points (a few) for accuracy but on others you're way off the mark. Lets look at you final recommendation in order:
1. Privatization of the Port Authority: A very, very difficult thing to do, really it's impossible. You see these inefficient transit system were created by, and are generally funded by the federal government. The federal enabling legislation from the 60's makes it virtually impossible to replace them with a private company.
2. Elimination of Redundancies (aka Allegheny County Police, Port Authority Police, Housing Authority Police, all which can be covered by municipal departments):
Again, this may sound good in theory but reality is a different matter. Most of the county police force involves services "to" the municipalities - serious crime investigations, etc...things that they can't afford to do. The county Housing Authority does have a police force but that is because the municipal forces where the communities are located have a hard time covering their own territory, and in many cases the authority police provide back-up to them, i.e. Clairton, Duquesne, etc... The Port Authority Police patrol the bus ways and the many Port Authority facilities.
3. Reduction of County Bureaucracy: During the past 10 years the county workforce has been "reduced" by at least 2000 full-time positions - sounds pretty good to me! And don't forget the cosolidation of the Row Offices.
4. Reduction of business and personal taxes: The County levies no such tax.
5. Rigid spending cap on the budget, limited to a maximum of 2% a year: With no property tax increase in 15 years (primary source of revenue for the county) there hasn't been much increase.
6. Drastic reduction of property tax: As I just stated, county taxes haven't been increased since the early 90's, and since the last commissioners 20% cut in '96 the tax rate has remained the same - sounds good to me. If you counter with the reassessment of 2000, - any tax revenue increase (windfall) was nullified by appeals and value reductions.
My conclusion: Onorato's "drink tax" makes good sense; keep the property tax rate where it is. As to the Port Authority - he's doing a great job behind the scenes in getting them to reign in spending...but as I stated earlier the federal legislation that created these systems makes that job extremely difficult. I wish Dan Onorato would forget about being Governor for now and serve a 3rd term as county executive!
I am always slightly amused at tax-and-spend apologists.
Firstly, there is no legitimate reason for the County to levy another tax when they can't get their exisitng house in order. We are not the worlds largest producer of steel anymore. Not the 3rd largest corporate head quarters. We are at best, a backwater, the largest city in appalachia, plain and simple. This isn't a bad thing, just reality.
Secondly, the City of Pittsburgh has had it's eyes on consolidating with the County since Mayor David Lawrence. Some call it metropolitanism. Some think it's a panacea. I say look to Philadelphia for the results. Or just imagine the City magnified in all its inefficiency.
I know some of you are fans of the consolidated 911 system. I think it stinks. We lost our autonomy. We lost our local dispatchers who knew the streets and the people. Now we get some shmuck who is usually in a bad mood answering our calls. I've talked about this in other posts.
As for the ambitious idea of privatization of the Port Authority, these things can be undone as easily as they were created. The problem is that there is no impetus in our local leadership to do this, just nay-sayers and big-government types who pander to the last vestiges of government labor unions ... a system that retires people before age 50 at full pay!! What other industry does this? OK, maybe Enron!
The Port Authority is a moribund bureaucracy overburdened by a recalcitrant labor union that has one of the highest fees in the nation, the lowest service area, and a byzantine schedule and routing system that would challenge the best puzzle-fanatic...it's a useless system by the occasional user. It is worse than we think!
Insofar as the City is concerned, they levy business and personal taxes out the wazoo. Heres the link:
http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/finance/html/forms-business.html#tax_rate_by_tax_type
Pittsburgh, and it's bigger brother Allegheny County are not friendly to businesseses period. They are, in effect, tax-fund junkies that are looking to rob us of every penny they can, plain and simple.
Finally, the shared-police-services that you refer to can, as in other places, be shifted to the more professionally-run State Police. There is no reason for a housing authority police force....your reason for keeping them makes no sense. If there is a housing project in Clairton, Clairton should receive the funds to hire more police locally, not create another County bureaucracy.
Likewise for the Port Authority Police.....redundancy.
Again, Pittsburgh is a dying city. Population and business losses mount every year. Taxing ourselves to death is not the solution, even though the bozo's on County Council and in the City think so.
Our region needs less government and less taxes. I think all we need to do is look toward the great Ronald Reagan for the answers to our problems. Or did we forget?
This guy Ronjamin is good! I would vote for him. How about the County Police and the Sheriff Office. Is South Park such a high Crime area that they need their own Police force that makes $100,000 a year. Bethel Park and South Park Township could handle the Park Area and they could use the extra money to hire more Officers. The Airport Could be handled By the State police and that would solve that problem. Onorato wants the County Police Cause they are his OWN Police force. Sure they are Very Good Police Officers, but we dont need 5 Officers Patroling South Park in the dead of Winter making $100,000 each. What do they do in the winter feed the deer? If Onorato really wants to cut the budget then start with his own police force. No reason for both the County Police and Sheriff, when Local Police can do that job. Ron is so right about the Housing Police, the areas that they cover could be handled by the local Police and give them the extra money. Onemore thing, please dont ever merge with the City of Pittsburgh . the city Bozos cant even get money from a casino that is 2 years behind.
The funny thing is that the data was there for everyone to see. How in the world could the City and State permit a virturally bankrupt company and individual to be granted a casino license. Here's the comparison between Majestic Star and Harrah's. IF it were your money, who would you invest in?
Majestic Star North Side
Employees: 2,081
Casinos World Wide: 5
Revenue: $234 Million
Market Cap: Private-Not Released
Percent Owned by Insiders: 100%
Investment Grade Bond Rating? NO Majestic Star was millions in debt at the time of the license and Don Barden had over $15 million in personal debt.
Key Community Involvement: $3 million dollar neighborhood development in Hill District. WHERE IS THAT????
Harrah's Station Square
Employees: 95,000
Casinos World Wide: 37, largest operator in the world.
Revenue: $6,250 Million
Market Cap: $13 Billion
Percent Owned by Insiders: 7.8%
Investment Grade Bond Rating? YES
Key Community Involvement:
$25 Million to Charitable Foundation,
$1 Million a year in perpetuity to City of Pittsburgh Community Investment Fund,
New Condominium Project,
Would have been open in 30 days using existing commercial space.
Now we are watching the same politics play out in the Hill District. The neighborhood needs a grocery store, and one of the largest grocery chains has agreed to build a Save-A-Lot.
But for some reason, some are promising a pie-in-the-sky multi-million dollar mixed-use project that, just like Bardens plan, will never see the light of day. The fix is indeed in.
Ron:
Agree with with most of your comments specifically the merger of county police forces. The main problem is that some people are too brainwashed to think for themselves. Look at the last election for mayor in the city of Pittsburgh. Mark Desantis had many great ideas and basically squashed Luke with his foresight about the future of Pittsburgh. What happened? The Unions and all their members voted democrat. Why? Because they were told to do so by their leaders to preserve their sweetheart deals.
Moving forward, before we can blast the city and county we must get our own municipalities in order. Most of that post on hear are from Baldwin, brentwood and Whitehall. Conbined those three municipalities serve approximately 43,000 residents in 10.2 square miles. Those three boroughs have the following:
Police - 4 chiefs (3 regular and a deputy chief), approximately 63 total officers, 3 k-9 units and approxiamtely 25 vehicles. I don't know each department all that well but each department gives the chief (and deputy chief a take home car) and each department has a dedicated vehicle for the k-9 unit. If the three departments were merged we can save on the salary and benefits of 3 chiefs the cost of their take home vehicle as well as gas and maintenance of the take home vehicle. Any savings could be used to add patrolmen or create specialized departments.
Fire - 6 different departments with 7 total stations. Together the departments have 11 pumpers (including rescue pumpers) 3 ariel units, 3 heavy rescues, 4 pick-ups and 6 suvs. Considering Bethel Park is of similar size to BBW they cover their area with 3 stations, 4 pumpers, an ariel, a heavy rescue, 1 puck-ups, a van and a SUV used as command center. The savings can be used to provide a paid staff during the week when it is hard to get personnel to respond to fires because of work schedules.
EMS - This is a little difficult because Whitehall is part of MRTSA. So assuming nothing from Whitehall their are still 2 stations, 7 ambulances, 3 suvs, a pickup truck, 2 cars and a heavy rescue truck (of which the fire departments have 3 of them.) & ambulance seems a little high as with the other vehicles. If the fire and ems were merged that could lead to more savings and like I stated before a paid cross trained staff for fore rescue.
Public works - Not sure of the equipment but I can assume that their are over lapping equipment suck as back-hoes, mowers and trucks.
School district - 2 with 8 buildings. Poeple already weighed in regards to this topic.
As you can see, its not only the city and county that wasting money it is our own municipalities as well. Personally I think if BBW were to consolidate it could be a great area with superior serives offered to their residents. I also think that our taxes will be lower due to a reduction in duplicate services. Finally, a combined muncipality could put a lot of pressure on Levitski to redevelop the 51 corridor.
The trouble is what you are dealing with. Example, public safety forces: Police, Two dept.s that are pretty much professional with separete divisions and one dept. that is the equivelent of the keystone cops. Fire, as you say, 6 different depts., thats basically 6 groups of children that will start crying as soon as you take there toys away. Not racking all volunteer depts.but childesness is overabundent in our immeadiate area. EMS, 2 dept.s, entirely different from each other, one fully paid, one paid/volunteer, both struggle to cover there area. Public works, that is an entirely different animal. Schools in my opinion should be left separete. I for one would not want my children in the Baldwin school district.
The examples that you list are all reasons for consolidation. Consolidation can bring professionalism back into police departments, It can help communities staff the ems better. It can also add professionalism to the fire deptartment and eliminated the childish behavior that you speak of. Finally it lowers taxes.
I think people are too proud to merge because they feel that they will lose their identity.
Ron:
It's clear that you're on a "Libertarian soap box". I'll just leave it at that. But I know you to be a very bright guy. Best regards...you do make a few good points that I agree with however.
Yea, I hear ya. Was on a rant.
Pure libertarian......ahh, not so. Some of their ideas are quite bizarre...but others are right-on-the-mark.
How about strict government conservative with emphasis on expanding economic freedom, pretty much on-par with Reaganism in terms of government.
And a strong social libertarian that focuses on expanding personal freedom, sans-abortion, of course, which is nothing other than murder!
Wiki has a good description here, although it's safe to say that even trying to strictly define a persons political beliefs is always a slippery exercise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_conservatism
And those Republicans who share libertarian philosophies can be found at the Republican Liberty Caucus.
http://www.rlc.org/
:-)
Who is everyone going to vote for in the fall? We need to remember that the federal government likes to take your money too.
Im voting McCain. Obama just scares me too much. Im afraid that all we will have left will be change when Obama is done taxing us middle class people. Thats what he means by Change. Obama will get the Black, Gays and Dumb college kids vote thats it. Im a 40 year Union member and no way will i vote for him. Many of my Fellow Union brothers and sisters feel the same way, but cant go public with it.
I will also be voting for McCain. Obama is already talking about raising taxes. I agree with the change comment, that is all we will have left. Someone who puts his life on the line for my freedoms has my utmost respect and my vote.