2011 Primaries - Allegheny County Executive Edition

Just like death and taxes, elections are an inevitable life event. In Pittsburgh, primaries will be held on May 17. As a registered Democrat, I will attempt to share my opinions and some facts about the Democratic candidates for office.

This is a special year for the county. Why? After his drubbing in the state governor's race, Dan Onorato, our beloved County Executive, has decided against running for the esteemed office.

As an especially informed voter this year, I had the pleasure of listening to the canned speeches of 2 of Dan's potential successors. Unfortunately, they both seem about the same to me - going on and on about their grand plan to subvert the court's fair decision to re-assess property in Allegheny County and praising themselves and the county for avoiding property tax increases over the past 10 years while back-handedly calling our unfair tax paying residents suckers under their breath.

Both of the candidates seem to be riding the coattails of Dan Onorato's successful avoidance of property tax reassessments, their untarnished names, and pretty much nothing else, but they both showed up to my neighborhood association to campaign and give their spiel, so I have to give them credit where credit is due.

Mark Patrick Flaherty - Allegheny County Controller. Lives in Mt Lebanon with his wife and 1 daughter. Wants to study Marcellus Shale drilling further and then profit from it. Will go along with the court's wishes (against his wishes) to reassess property and attempt to insure it is done in a transparent easy-to-appeal manner. Wants light rail to the airport and all suburbs, doesn't think that the drink tax was the right solution for funding Port Authority, but says: "we have to go back to the drawing board and find a solution, because the town cannot function without public transit."

Rich Fitzgerald - Allegheny County Council President. Lives in Squirrel Hill with his wife and 8 children. Wants responsible taxed Marcellus Shale Drilling. He "opposes any effort to implement the court ordered tax reassessments." No mention of Port Authority on his election issues page.

Of these 2 candidates, I'm leaning toward Mr Flaherty. His highlighting of Port Authority on his campaign website and his willingness to follow the court's orders endear him to me.

On the Republican side, Raja, the Mt Lebanon commissioner, appears to be the favorite, which should shape up for a competitive election come the fall. Raja's running against the scoundrel we all love to hate, County Councilor Chuck McCullough.

Onorato's Last Stand On Property Tax

Dan Onorato is in his final year of office as Allegheny County Executive. He has stated that 1 of his top 3 goals in this final year is to stop court-ordered property tax reassessment. Gas drilling on airport land and increasing flight traffic round out the list. Securing funding for Port Authority didn't make the cut.

Allegheny County Council President is also begging the state to hold off on property tax reassessment.

Mr. Fitzgerald, D-Squirrel Hill, proposed a resolution that urges the Legislature to adopt a statewide moratorium on court-ordered reassessments and calls on new Gov. Tom Corbett, a Shaler homeowner, to support it.

So what are their arguments against reassessing?

1. Other counties don't have to reassess regularly, so why should Allegheny County? The State Supreme Court has come down in favor of regular reassessments as being the only fair method to calculate property tax. It's only a matter of time until fairness becomes the standard across the state. Why fight a losing battle? Why aren't our Legislators standing up and insisting that instead of a moratorium, the state forces regular reassessments for ALL counties? Then we wouldn't have to worry about unscrupulous folks fleeing the county for lower taxes, and we would be complying with the law.

2. Property re-assessments simply generate a windfall for local governments as property values overall tend to increase over time. Another bullshit argument. County Council member/scofflaw Chuck McCullough has introduced legislation to "soften the blow" of Property Tax reassessments by generating a "bill of rights" for property owners which would prevent egregious assessment appeals and phase in any tax increases. I say take it a step further and force municipalities to lower their millage rates to keep the total revenue stream consistent over time. It's very simple math.

3. And the most ridiculous?

As Mr. Onorato did last week, Mr. Fitzgerald said he doubted that a reassessment would bring tax relief to homeowners in struggling communities. If property values go down in a neighborhood, he said, a school district may have to raise millage to compensate.

Perhaps it's true that some struggling communities like Wilkinsburg and McKeesport wouldn't significantly benefit from a reassessment. But they also wouldn't be harmed! And more often you have struggling neighborhoods or corridors within a municipality, especially the city of Pittsburgh where the poorer neighborhoods of Homewood and Allentown (amongst many others) would clearly benefit over those more affluent neighborhoods such as the South Side and Squirrel Hill.

Why all this anger about property reassessments?

Because people who live in expensive houses in this county are being systematically under-taxed. Find me one house in Allegheny County that costs more than $200,000 and is being assessed for anywhere near its value, and I will be shocked. Yet every single house on the City of Pittsburgh chopping block is being sold at significantly less than its assessed value (often about 10% of its assessed value). All of these houses are in "struggling" neighborhoods. As a matter of disclosure, I am in the former group; though my house cost significantly less than $200,000, it has a street value of significantly more than my assessed value.

So why do I care?

Because the success of the city relies on the success of all its neighborhoods. As long as the status quo remains, then our poorer neighborhoods will continue their everlasting decline and the schism between the haves and the have-nots will only increase in the city creating more and more friction and violence. Let's put a halt to widening the schism based on unfair practices. Let's vote for people who stand up for equal rights even when their pocketbooks are on the line.

Dedicated Funding Streams 101

You may (like me) have spent the last week gorging on Christmas treats and entertaining travelers stranded in Pittsburgh because of the crippling East Coast snowstorm. However, Pittsburgh City Council has been spending their holidays coming up with last-minute solutions to avoid a potentially disastrous state take-over of the city's pensions at the end of the year.

The latest political buzzword is "Dedicated Funding Stream." The idea is as old as dirt, though. Many of us set aside money every paycheck to contribute to our 401Ks. That's a simple dedicated funding stream. Instead of getting your whole paycheck, plopping it into one big checking account, then deciding how to divvy things up, you set aside a fixed percentage every month to your future retirement that you can't change without lots of annoying paperwork.

Allegheny County's Drink Tax
Back in 2007, County Executive Dan Onorato and his council passed the extraordinarily controversial Drink tax, dedicating 10% of every tipple consumed in the county to pay for the County's share of Port Authority expenses. Now, when it's time to pay Port Authority, the Council doesn't have to slice a piece of the budget pie - that money is already set aside.

City Council's Proposal?
Pittsburgh City Council wants to dedicate future parking rate increase profits to funding the Pittsburgh pensions. I, for one, am a fan of this method. Much like we don't sell our house and put the profits in our 401K and hope for the best, just to get all our savings wiped out in a bad market downturn, we regularly contribute to our future, exercising "Dollar Cost Averaging." If you need an extra reminder why plopping a giant wad of cash onto the problem doesn't fix the problem, you need to only look back to the year 1998 in Pittsburgh. That's when then-Mayor Murphy sold over $250 Million in bonds to shore up the pension fund. All that money has since disappeared in stock market dive after stock market dive while the city continued to contribute the minimum amount possible each year.

What's Next? Will Harrisburg also jump on the dedicated funding stream bandwagon? One can only hope. As it stands now, the Pennsylvania state legislature can barely pass budgets on time while it attempts to divvy up its giant general fund. Most of the time, Port Authority gets the shaft. Let's take the control out of the hands of selfish state legislators and add some transparency to the budgeting process instead of last-minute shady deals to pass the budget. Heck, maybe the Federal government could even learn some lessons here? If I can manage my own budget, surely our governments with their teams of Ph.D. degree-holders and economists should be able to as well.

The Polls Are Open

It's a happy coincidence that I'm back in the country for election day. It's jet lag though not excitement that has me blogging this early in the morning.

Your Western Pennsylvania Election Run Down:

Governor

It's a toss-up for which is the most important election this year. Since I'm a proponent of all things local, I'm going to say the race for governor is the most important. Harrisburg once again recently showed that they are completely inept by failing to pass a Marcellus Shale drilling tax. Here in Pittsburgh, our pension crisis is coming to a head because of Harrisburg's inaction. Let's put someone in the governor's chair who actually has a chance of addressing those issues.

Tom Corbett:

"Tom Corbett may not be in a hurry to enact a severance tax on natural gas drillers, but if elected Pennsylvania’s next governor, the current attorney general will begin immediately to reform state government."

Do you really trust that he's going to change his tune after he's elected and in power? Judge the man on what he's actually done - not on his promises. Judge him on what he has done, such as joining the health care suit to overturn much needed health care reform in this country.

Dan Onorato:

I'll admit it that I flip-flop on Dan Onorato. He has certainly made choices locally that I disapprove of, but that will be the case with any candidate that you have detailed knowledge of. There is no perfect candidate, but there is a "best" candidate in this election. That is Dan Onorato. He has accomplished a lot (controversially) in his time as County Executive of Allegheny County. He's making the county more energy efficient, investing in our green space, and recently announced a major breakthrough of the Allegheny trail. As governor, he will be in the position to fix the property tax miasma throughout the state and maintain his hard line on limited tax increases.

Senator

Toomey:
From his site: "Throughout his time in Congress, Pat voted for legislation to protect innocent life, strengthen marriage, and protect the traditional values upon which this country was founded."
Would those be the same values that made black men slaves and denied women the right to vote? No thank you.

Toomey's cure for the economy: "cutting taxes and decreasing regulation." Really? Really? Haven't we had enough of short-term fixes that screw us in the end?

Sestak:
His grassroots campaign upset surprised us all in the Spring when he emerged victorious over Arlen Spector. He needs your help to do it again. For information on why you should vote for Sestak, see the Post-Gazette's endorsement of Sestak.

Get out and vote!

Pittsburgh is Farming

Pittsburgh is a city, but almost as soon as you leave the city limits, the area becomes farmland. This is one of the unsung wonders of our city, supplying our farmer's markets with plentiful and reasonable fruits and vegetables all summer long. This weekend as part of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) annual farm tour, over 20 farm opened their doors to visitors. I managed to visit 5 of those farms.

At Shenot Farm on a quintessential hay ride, I learned they are collaborating with Penn State to practice mating disruption throughout their farm. This is a method of reducing insects without pesticides. They hang little pheromone tags on peach trees and apple trees to confuse the insects while saving money and our fragile environment at the same time. Soergel's mega-orchard is also using this method.

At Pound's Turkey Farm, I was surprised to learn that not only do they raise turkeys and cows, but they also grow most of the feed that these animals consume. I learned first-hand that turkeys are curious creatures that follow people around and like to play with toys, and I even got to hold a baby turkey in my hand. Maybe it will be my Thanksgiving dinner?

Over at Jamison Farms, I was transported to Ireland. Sheep roam the hillsides, and John Jamison will talk your ear off about his lamb and why Americans tend to reject this delicious meat. He's convinced many chefs of the greatness of his lamb including the ones at Legume and Sonoma Grille locally. You can also buy direct from the source and try your hand at cooking this delectable lamb at home.

All of these farms are less than an hour from downtown. Of course, you don't need to leave Pittsburgh's urban environment to see agriculture in action in Pittsburgh. Burgh Bees is a pioneer in urban community apiaries with a test site in progress in Homewood. Recently, Dan Onorato announced "Allegheny Grows," a plan to turn county land into urban farms and community gardens. Even the Pittsburgh Pirates have caught the farming bug. Their Pepsi Refresh Project is to create yet another urban community garden - in Homewood.

You can talk about a lot of great things in Pittsburgh, but this summer, the thing I'm most thankful for is our connection to the earth. Pittsburgh's next #1 ranking should be city with the most opportunity for sustainable urban living.

Grand Jury has Grand Goals

Until yesterday, the sole job of 35 Salaried PennDOT employees was to handle legislative requests - to the tune of 246,000 requests per year. On the Democratic side of the state house, there are at least 10 "PennDOT Specialists" who submit those requests.

The House Republican spokesman, Steve Miskin is livid about the changes. The Tribune-Review quoted the following:

"You're saying the legislator, the vocal representative for that community, can't help their constituents out? That is their job. That is what they're supposed to do."

Steve, your job is to enable constituents to get what they need. It's not to bloat our government beyond repair. What's next? Does the state legislature have special PLCB (Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board) specialists that will place special orders for you when you can't figure out how to do it yourself? Honestly, if you can't figure out how to register your car or get a driver's license, you probably shouldn't be driving.

The grand jury investigated the entire state house and identified these easy pickings as the first steps in attempting to reform Harrisburg. The grand jury is also recommending reducing the size of the legislature, implementing term limits, eliminating per diem supplements, and increasing the term length from 2 years to 4 years. Those changes are pretty radical and will require a constitutional convention in Pennsylvania. These changes will only happen when pigs fly unless we put pressure on the state government. This is an election year for governor, so us voters have some sway this year. Both Onorato and Corbett claim that they want state-wide reform. Let's push our candidates to implement real reform this year and start to chip away at the country club that is our state Legislature.

Looking Ahead in Pittsburgh

One door closes, another door opens and all that.

UPMC Braddock officially closed on Sunday, but today County Executive Onorato announced plans to demolish the former hospital and build office-space in its stead.

Mayor Ravenstahl vetoed prevailing wage legislation on New Year's Eve, but the new crop of City Council has once again unanimously passed prevailing wage legislation.

I watched Flashdance last night, and can't help but appreciate the work that the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has done in minimizing the city's strip clubs. 25 Years from now, will I be praising them for ridding the city of casinos? Or cursing the overwhelming amount of art galleries, theaters, and music venues?

Pittsburgh Comet has closed its doors. Who will fill the void? Time will tell.

Weird Pittsburgh News

3 Weird Pittsburgh News Bits that caught my eye this Friday

1) A church bought by a controversial billboard company may become a national immigration museum. Perhaps Lamar wants to clean up their bad name around these parts? Perhaps they'll move the unfinished electronic billboard to the vicinity of the church and finally clean up the mess that is the lighting of the Grant Street Transportation Center?

2) Both Russell Crowe and Jake Gyllenhall are self-proclaimed fans of Pittsburgh. Jake Gyllenhall went so far as to show off his (presumably fake) Pittsburgh Steelers tattoo. After the Sienna Miller fiasco, it's a shock to hear celebrities speak well of the city. I guess they left their hotel rooms.

3) The county and Judge Wettick appear to have agreed on a timeline to *gasp* reassess property values. This is my favorite unexpected news of the day. County Executive Onorato has been on a high horse about refusing to perform anything even tangentially related to a property reassessment, even if it's requisite to taxing county residents fairly (and is required to follow the state constitution). This about face makes me breathe a sigh of relief. But the following caveat makes me wary: "[P]roperty owners would have to pay taxes before appealing [property assessments]."

Registering for the Pittsburgh Party

Welcome to the Democratic governor's race, Mr. Hoeffel.

I'm currently registered to vote as an Independent. I'm not a huge fan of either the Republican or Democratic parties, though I do have a tendency to vote Democrat.

The longer I live in Pittsburgh, the more politically handicapped I feel by not being registered as a Democrat. I happened to be out of the country when Hillary and Barack were competing in the National Democratic primary. Similarly, I skipped town when the recent Pittsburgh Democratic mayoral primary took place. But I figure I may actually be in town one of these years for the Democratic primary. Especially if there's a decent Democrat running against Dan Onorato.

Anyone out there not registered as a Democrat? Are there any drawbacks to registering as a Democrat? Any reason I shouldn't fill out this form?

2 State Bills You Should Be Paying Attention To

The Pennsylvania State House may not be able to pass a budget, but they can sure screw over the residents of Allegheny County. Yesterday, 2 very important bills passed some of their final tests.

1.) The Property Re-Assessment Bill. The State Supreme Court ordered a re-assessment of Allegheny County. Dan Onorato with the support of lots of other sniveling counties in the state, have pushed the state house and senate to put this court-ordered re-assessment on hold for 18 months. The Senate could have their final vote on this one as early as tomorrow. Then it's in the hands of Rendell.

Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, said he had serious doubts about the bill, which has already passed the House, but voted for it yesterday "to keep the process moving.'' He said it may be unconstitutional for the Legislature to tell counties to ignore court orders on reassessment.

Yes, we are moving forward by not moving anywhere for the next 18 months. Is that enough time for Mr Onorato to get elected governor and think of a smarmy way out of this sticky mess?

2.) The Pension Bill - which also determines Pittsburgh's parking taxes. Here the state wants to take over the city's pension funding as well as any other city or municipality facing less than 50% funded. Pittsburgh's pensions are funded at an abysmal 28%. In theory, it sounds like a great idea to out-source this responsibility because clearly Pittsburgh has been failing at it in an unprecedented manner. But at the same time, is the State really any more responsible with their money? And why the micro-managing? Why does this bill include over-arching wording about the parking tax? It should be either a pension bill or a parking tax bill. Luckily, after the Senate votes on this one, it will be lobbed back to the House.

The Bike Lobby in Motion

Over the weekend, the Rivers Casino re-opened the North Shore trail section their year-long construction was blockading. They also erected signs which said that bikers were not allowed to ride their bike on the trail past the casino, and instead had to dismount and walk their bikes, a rule that was actively being enforced on the trail. This immediately caused an uproar amongst the biking community. But a funny thing happened. Mayor Ravenstahl and County Executive Onorato both jumped on board the bikers side. As of this afternoon, the crisis is over. The signs will be changed to say: "Proceed with Caution."

The casino spokesman whined: You didn't have to go to the media. You should have just called us.

The city of bikers rolled their eyes collectively: You didn't have to put up the signs.

As a side note, some fresh bike lanes were painted in the Strip District this weekend.
Are things changing in this city? And do we need to be wary of the power of bikers? And most importantly, is there anyway this new faction can be motivated to bring about change in the city beyond their two wheels?

East Vs West

Pennsylvania is a funny state. I've heard it described as "Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama in the middle", a joke I'm sure that Harrisburg (and Alabama) hates. But the fact of the matter is there's a lot of nothing in between the two major Pennsylvania cities, except its capital. So it totally makes sense to have high-speed rail with few stops connecting these cities.

What do we have?

Philadelphia to Harrisburg

• 204 miles
• 90 minutes by train
• Train runs 14 times per day

Harrisburg to Pittsburgh

• 311 miles
• 5+ hours by train
• Train runs once per day
  

Why the difference? Historically, Pittsburgh's gotten the shaft?

At this point, Pennsylvania (and Pittsburgh) government has shown so little initiative that Congressman Altmire is instead hopping on board with Ohio's plans to connect Pittsburgh and Cleveland. And I don't blame him. As R2P writer, Jim Russell, has been espousing for years, we need to stop thinking of Cleveland as the enemy and instead build a mega-rust-belt-region to promote all of us. The first step to that collaboration might as well be a frequent and convenient train between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. If Cleveland can eventually have a smooth connection to Chicago via train and we're a hop-skip to Cleveland, you'd better believe that PennDOT and the PA governor would be banging on the door to let in a better train from Harrisburg.

In the meantime, I'd really like to see some local initiative on all public transportation fronts. Let's here Onorato and Ravenstahl step up and say that they will pursue city-wide light rail, regional commuter rail, and inter-city high speed rail. All of these options are vital for the region in terms of generating jobs, attractiveness to immigrants, and general congestion.

This is Consolidation?

This past week, County Executive Onorato announced the appointment of a sustainability manager for Allegheny county.

If this man is actually serious about city-county consolidation, couldn't he have worked with Mayor Ravenstahl to perhaps create a partner for the city sustainability coordinator, Lindsay Baxter, instead of attempting to re-invent the wheel at the county level? In a time of contraction of jobs and supposed efforts to reduce duplication between the city and county, our illustrious leaders are showing that they have no desire to change going forward.

As a kicker (as the PGH Comet noted), the Allegheny county position is also being paid almost double the salary of the city coordinator - $85,000 starting salary versus $45,000.

Scorecard?

Pittsburgh - 2 for being ahead of the curve and more economically minded.
County - 0 for duplicating services and wasting taxpayer money. Dan, next time, look before you jump on the bandwagon.

When the green stimulus funds were announced and given directly to cities and counties, Dan Onorato said: "That allows us to be creative." A little too creative if you ask me.

Is the Airport a Money Pit?

For all the griping about the North Shore Connector, how come no one gripes about the Pittsburgh "International" Airport. This money pit has been attempting to sink the county since 2001 when a series of unfortunate events finally conspired to yank the title of major airport hub from this mid-sized city airport. It was inevitable. Yet, in 1992, the airport was expanded??? After years of awful unemployment and folks leaving in droves, someone thought it'd be a great idea to expand this airport? At the time, the new airport buildings were "also being seen as a way to lift the economy." Talk about a boondoggle.

Nowadays, we've enticed (read: spent lots of money on) Delta to operate a non-stop flight to Paris and the powers-that-be have spent millions of dollars attempting to link this mediocre airport to the city instead of actually building a viable downtown to Oakland transit connection. If they were really concerned about inter-city travel, $1 Billion would have been much better spent on having more than one train per day to cities like Cleveland, Philadelphia, Harrisburg and New York.

Pittsburgh needs an airport, but *gasp* I agree with Onorato. Sell off the airport parking garages, make the airport solvent, and let's get the hell out of dodge.

Green Roof Request

A follow-up to yesterday's blog post. I mentioned Onorato's great new plan to have a green roof on the County building downtown. In a city that pride's itself on its skyline views, green roofs are the way to go. They improve views, help the environment, and lower operating costs all at the same time.

And where do we need a green roof the most? The South Side Giant Eagle. From above it is a giant bland box in the midst of old Victorian homes. My disdain for the Giant Eagle plaza on the South Side is large. It was planned before the age of pedestrian-friendly complexes and rivals Robinson Town Center for pedestrian unfriendliness. The crosswalks that do exist are inconvenient and where one wants to walk is where the cars have right of way. However, it's difficult to retrofit a shopping plaza. What is relatively easy to retrofit? The roof.

To be frank, Giant Eagle South Side ruins the view from my house and every other house on the South Side Slopes, so this is a partially selfish plea. But Giant Eagle has shown that they are willing to install green roofs in Shadyside. Let's see a green roof in an area where people will actually see it, and it will improve the lives of city residents. That's a lot more doable than windmills on Mt Washington and a lot more effective than one solar panel at a firehouse in a city known for cloudy skies.

What else is ruining views in the city?

Turning Over A New Leaf?

County Executive Onorato has been barking up the right tree lately. (Sorry, I couldn't resist the lame green metaphors. Maybe it has something to do with my recent visit to the Amazon.)

Onorato is moving forward with a Green Roof on the County Building while Ravenstahl is dragging his heals on plans to make the city-county building more energy efficient.

He is also touting the CCAC Green Institute - Preparing our workers to be "Green Collar" as well as educating county residents on making their homes more energy efficient are keys to continuing to succeed as a region.

And most importantly, Onorato is putting a renewed focus on transit projects for the region - especially Downtown-Oakland which could be a vital connector.

Screwing Around With Campaign Finance Reform

Just yesterday, I received a press release from Kevin Evanto detailing how Dan Onorato now supports the stricter campaign finance reforms that Pittsburgh city council has passed. Instead of just ignoring this issue, he's picking up the ball and following the city's lead. This is also in spite of county council members like Amanda Green who say: "It's not a priority for me. I'm not hearing from constituents that it's a priority for them either." I'm happy that Dan has decided that ethics are a priority for the county.

However, it's only fitting that within hours of making me pleased, I learn that precious Dan bursts my bubble by giving a "loan" from his campaign war chest to the war chest of precocious Lukey. Thanks to PGH Comet for pointing this out. Lukey, whose million dollar safety net had previously dwindled to around $350,000. If the way he's managing this campaign is indicative of the way he's managing the city, he definitely needs to be displaced by Dowd who is working with a war ottoman of less than $75,000. But more importantly, how can you take a "loan" from the county executive while both of you are claiming to support campaign finance reform? Am I sensing that a loophole to the new law has already been found? Or is this another thank-god-i-vetoed-the-campaign-finance-reform-bill-last-summer exception?

Maybe Doc Harris or another independent will have a chance in this race as poor Lukey will be out of money and all he'll have to show for it is a black and gold themed website built in North Carolina and some tired commercials.

Or maybe Dowd or Robinson (who both happened to use Pittsburgh design firms to build their websites) will pull out a victory in this David and David and Goliath race.

Whatever the case, Danny-boy is clearly rooting for Lukey, leaving us all to wonder why. Does Danny like posing with Luke that much? Is he afraid Dowd or Robinson won't issue nice soundbites with him? Is he trying to stop Luke from moving on to the Governor's race? (hahahahaha) Or maybe he just wants someone in his pocket when he reaches the highest office in the state? Whatever the case, it's another week of questionable ethics in Pittsburgh. But wouldn't Peduto be out of a job if everybody started playing by the rules?

Unconstitutional Dan

I have to follow in the footsteps of the PGH Comet and Nullspace in gloating today.

Property tax re-assessments are a boring subject, yet they speak to the division of class in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. Regular re-assessments are critical in a county like Pittsburgh's where especially in the last 10 years you have had some areas skyrocket in value (i.e. South Side) while others have been sinking like an anchor (i.e. Braddock).

Some people think that you shouldn't be "penalized" for the increased the value of your home by being forced to pay more taxes on it. However, I think that's akin to saying that if you get a raise at work for good performance, you shouldn't owe more in income taxes. On the flip side, that's like saying if your salary decreases, you are still required to pay the same taxes. That's just not the way our society works, and it's brutally unfair.

For far too long, we've had people (including myself) benefiting at the expense of the poorer neighborhoods in this city, county and throughout the state. Thanks to the State Supreme Court, at least in Allegheny County, this unconstitutional practice may be coming to an end.

From Chief Justice Castille:

"[T]he Allegheny County scheme, which permits a single base-year assessment to be used indefinitely, has resulted in significant disparities in the ratio of assessed value to current actual value in Allegheny County."

"The disparity is most often to the disadvantage of owners of properties in lower-value neighborhoods where property values often appreciate at a lower rate than in higher-value neighborhoods, if they appreciate at all," the court said.

But what does Dan Onorato have to say? According to the Post-Gazette:

"... Mr. Onorato vowed to end property reassessments in Allegheny County as well since taking office six years ago. He repeated his vow yesterday."

Why?

"It would be unfair for me to just roll over and do something that will raise the property taxes of the 1.3 million people in this county," Mr. Onorato said.

My response (again)?

"Let's get something straight. Housing prices (in a normal society) increase. It's perfectly natural and expected that prices will increase. In fact, if housing prices didn't increase we'd be in trouble. HOWEVER, the increased value of an assessed house SHOULD NOT mean increased property tax. When values go up, the county or the city or whomever, SHOULD adjust the mill rate DOWN so that the net result for them is about the same. Is there a law against that in Harrisburg???"

Yes, I just quoted my previous blog entry, but I admit I'm getting tired of spouting the same old argument. Isn't this getting a little old, Dan? Can you please stop wasting county money on defenseless ever-appealed court cases?

Good Day For Mass Transit

So I spend yesterday lambasting Onorato for creating schisms between county and city and today he goes and proves me wrong. Onorato wrote a letter requesting money for transit links between Downtown, Oakland and the airport. In fact the headline for the Post-Gazette article is:

Onorato eyes rail links to airport, Oakland

Of course, I have to look closer.

The "fine print" for this letter breaks down Onorato's requests as such:
$7 Million for downtown mass transit system design
$10.5 Million for commuter rail system design
------
Total: $17.5 Million

$25 Million for a road in Robinson
$32 Million for a road in Upper St Clair and Scott
$35 Million for the Mansfield Bridge which connects Dravosburg, Glassport and McKeesport.
$12 Million for a flyover ramp in Rankin and Swissvale
$4.5 Million for road improvements in Marshall
$2.5 Million for road construction in Monroeville
$7 Million for traffic improvements in Brackenridge near a steel plant
------
Total: $118 Million

So $17.5 Million out of a total $135.5 Million (about 13%) of his requests are for mass transit.

I understand that the elephant in the room here is the dreaded North Shore connector which is gobbling up a lot of funding right now.

I also understand that these transit projects will cost ultimately cost billions of dollars but they're only in the design phases right now and there's a limit to how much money you can request for design.

However, I seriously question the short-term vision of our local government who only finds these projects worth pursuing when they are in national favor. Imagine if someone a few years ago had the gumption and follow-through to initiate these studies and if we were ready to go on a spineline between Oakland and Downtown instead of working on a half-assed North Shore connector which no one is truly happy about. What happens in 4 years if Obama is no longer in power and our pathetic local leaders still are (and perhaps Onorato has his governor prize)? Will we then be left with yet more money being spent on highways and interchanges and more transit plans being curtailed and swept under the rug? Will we end up with a new tunnel to the South Side as a booby prize?

But in the meantime, I am very excited to see mass-transit plan being seriously considered even if it's local leaders jumping on the bandwagon. I like this bandwagon. I'd just appreciate some serious long-term regional commitment to spending time and effort on improving our transit systems because right now I feel like it could all disappear at the drop of a hat.

Parking Garages Versus Port Authority

Brian O'Neill makes a very important point about parking garages in his latest editorial:

"Suburban commuters, the people most affected by any uptick in parking rates, have no vote in the mayoral election."

He makes that note near the end of his editorial and then he drops it, but somehow I will make a whole blog post out of this one line because I think he's looking at the tip of the iceberg of this thinly-veiled city versus suburb issue. City dwellers love the idea of leasing the parking garages and dealing with the city pension problem with the profits. Why? Because city dwellers DO NOT USE the parking garages. City dwellers take the bus or walk to work. We were just rated the 10th best walking city in part because a whopping 12% of us walk to work, the most in the nation after Boston. Another 18% take public transportation.

So, how about the city sells/leases the parking garages to the county? The county can manage them for the good of the county residents and then the city doesn't have to be responsible for taking care of suburban commuters at the expense of our city pensions.

Of course, the county doesn't want to buy the parking garages. Why would they? The county [read: Dan Onorato] also wants to contribute as little as is necessary for the upkeep and running of Port Authority. The county [read: Dan Onorato] also wants to keep the status quo of unjust property taxes. And the people that live in the county? They tend to think this is all a city problem, and they bemoan us city-dwellers for continuously voting in inept government that they have no control over. Well, suburban commuters, you do not have a mayoral vote, but you do have control over your government. You choose to not live in the city, you reject consolidation between city and county, and you vote for people like Onorato who undermine your cause by furthering the fractions between city and county despite boasting about the 2 municipality functions he's managed to merge.

And how did the city get in such poor shape? It seems to me that for a long time people thought it was easier to leave the city instead of help fix it. They were right. It was easier in the short-term, but now we're all paying for it - whether through higher taxes or parking rates. The big problem is that right now, the only one who's really profiting from it all is private parking garage owners.

How about the city offers to eliminate the dreaded parking garage tax, offers to keep ineptly running the parking garages (with their incumbent city pension issues and nepotism) and instead institutes a low wage tax on those suburban commuters? Is there any concession on the city's part that would make this palatable? County membership on the Parking Authority board? A citizen watchdog board made up of both city and county residents?

Let's work together to solve these issues. Let's all elect officials who will actually work together instead of giving lip service to a joke of a consolidation plan. Let's make Pittsburgh and the region stronger instead of just tearing each other apart.