Stimulus Watch - Pittsburgh Style

When the stimulus money was released nation-wide, there were big promises that all the money spent would be publicized online in the intent to make us feel better about the billions that are being spent. Of course, you only actually feel better if someone actually looks up those websites.

So here we are: Stimulus money in Pittsburgh.

It's broken out into 6 categories, and I'll give an overview of each category.

1. Infrastructure & Economic Development
What's happening? This is by far the biggest piece of the pie. This breaks down into general infrastructure improvements, i.e. bridges and street-paving ($5 Million), Housing Authority money ($27 Million), demolishing vacant buildings ($4 Million), and money for sewer improvements ($17.8 Million).
Total: $53.8 Million
My Opinion: The general infrastructure improvements are clearly the bread and butter of the stimulus package. But general infrastructure improvements only make up 7% of the money here. I have to seriously question the huge allocation for the Housing Authority, especially given its recent pathetic audit performance.

2. Public Safety & Criminal Justice
What's happening? Technology, Equipment, Vehicles, Police Academy for the Pittsburgh Police
Total: $2.1 Million
My Opinion: Sounds to me like we're filling in normal budget shortfalls here, and the project notes are pretty minimal.

3. Energy Efficiency & Natural Resources
What's happening? Updating the City-County building for energy efficiency.
Total: $3.4 Million
My Opinion: I'm a little disappointed in this slice of the pie. This will affect one building in the city, but it will undoubtedly generate jobs and make that one building much better.

4. Workforce Development & Education
What's happening? Summer youth jobs, adult workforce development and adult training
Total: $3 Million
My Opinion: Creating jobs and helping put more people directly to work. I saw lots of signs around town recruiting for the summer youth jobs and they had a standard method for awarding those jobs fairly. This is a great example of stimulus spending.

5. Health & Social Services Safety Net
What's happening? Homelessness Prevention
Total: $6.8 Million
My Opinion: That's a lot of money for a broad description and no project notes. I think this one needs a closer watch. Seems like you could give an awful lot of people houses for $6.8 million. How many homeless people do we have in Pittsburgh?

6. Tax Credits & Fiscal Assistance
What's happening? NOTHING
Total: $0
My Opinion: Are we wasting potential money here?

Overall
What's happening? Clearly a lot.
Total: $69.1 Million
My Opinion: There definitely seems to be a combination of shooting low (tax credits, energy efficiency, general infrastructure), taking advantage of the system (housing authority) and band-aids for bad budgeting (police, sewers). A lot of good will come out of this for Pittsburgh. Plus, I give the city a bit of a break because there wasn't much time for planning on this. There's a clear lack of funding for public transportation options at this point, but I'm going to assume that falls at the county level. I also don't see anything to help out our ailing schools. Of course, not all of the stimulus money has been released yet. I'll keep watching.

Silver Lined Economic Clouds

Right now, at the state level, serious debates are occurring over funding for everything from entrepreneurial initiatives to arts programs to museums to public television. Almost daily, I get an email imploring me to contact my state representative and fight for money to save all of these valuable state donations.

Back in March, I read in the Post-Gazette that the Fort Pitt Museum was on the chopping block. They reported that the state spends $500,000 per year to run the museum. This month, many organizations have stepped up to say they can run the museum for half as much state funding, thus saving tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Why wasn't this done years ago? That's a serious question for which I would like someone to be accountable. But clearly, it took an economic crisis for us to rethink how our taxpayer money is spent. Maybe we need one of these crises every few years because our legislators can't be bothered to keep themselves in check.

I hope over the next month, as the state budget process unfolds, we find more of these public-private partnerships to save the state money and run our facilities more efficiently. (I'm sure someone can come up with an idea for the state liquor stores.) Making decisions which will save us money now and in the future will only help the city and state. It's just a shame that it takes a downturn for us to make some smart decisions.

Taxing Time

According to the Post-Gazette, federal tax returns filed by internet are processed in one day instead of 4 weeks. Talk about efficient. You can file your state taxes by internet or even by phone (if your return is easy). Yet, here in Pittsburgh, the city is in the taxes stone age. We can submit questions to mayoral debates by youtube and coming soon, we'll be watching city council meetings on the web, but to file our taxes and make estimated payments, we're limited to paper filing. Personally, I filed my state and federal taxes a month ago (before I left for Peru) and I got nearly instant notification that my returns were processed. I'm still waiting for a potential response from the city of Pittsburgh. I mailed the check and many forms and crossed my fingers.

With all the talk about efficiency and modernization in this city, how about an online filing of city taxes? I know all the information makes its way into a computer eventually (or should). Let's cut out the middle man who has to type it all in. The federal government has realized the cost savings of electronic filing and we should, too. "... e-filing also helps to hold down government costs. It costs the IRS $2.80 to process a paper return vs. 35 cents to process an electronic return." That ends up to being less than the cost of the stamp you'd use to mail in your return. Assuming the costs are similar and our more than 300,000 residents file taxes each year, then that works out to a potential yearly savings of $735,000 (300,000 times $2.45) . Even if only half of city residents file taxes, I could write the software for a lot less than that and give it away for free. I'm waiting for the day that consulting job pops up on the city of Pittsburgh's website, but I won't be holding my breath.