Pittsburgh PA - Pennsylvania lawmakers finally approved a budget which includes dedicated transit funding for the state's transit systems but there is a string attached. To get the funding, local government will need to put up matching funding.
In Allegheny County, the state is going to allow Allegheny County officials to impose up to a 10 percent poured drinks tax as well as a $2 per day tax on rental cars. In other words, the state politicians passed the buck to the locals.
Now, to Allegheny County Chief Executive Director Dan Onorato's (D) credit, he stated that he would not impose the new taxes until the Port Authority gets its union and management costs down more. Yet another string on the funding. Given Onorato's desire to implement the original and poorly conceived PAT hack & slash plan which left large sections of the county without any transit service, I really believe he will hold to what he is stating.
The Port Authority has a long way to go to trim costs. The union is willing to reopen the contract for negotiations however they will fight against any major concessions. Management is busy doing a smoke and mirror act with many of its costs.
There are some problems with the new funding plan for Allegheny County also. Primarily is that it is yet another "sin" tax. A poured drink tax is a targeted tax aimed at a select group of people, most of whom will have no problem taking their business across county lines. These types of "sin" taxes have proven to generate far less than projected in addition to chasing away money to other areas that are more money friendly.
Secondly, the string attached to the so-called dedicated funding by the state politicians is designed strictly to take the focus off of them the next time there is a funding crunch and place it on the local politicians. The state also must budget and tax the residents for the maximum amount of the funding even if it isn't used. Unused money from one year won't be carried over to the next year in the budget either.
Each year the state politicians will still have to do exactly as they have been doing since 1964 and budget the money. In effect, all the state politicians have done is to increase the red tape and bureaucracy since they now require the local government to tax and match to get the funding. I didn't expect anything less from the state politicians.
How I see this going down is as follows in Pittsburgh. The county will impose a small portion of the tax, around 2-4%. Some of the revenue generated will go to get matching funds but not all of it. PAT's management and union will not bring costs down much more than they already have which will keep the county from providing the full amount of money to get the state's matching funds. Probably around half of the poured drink tax revenue will be skimmed off for other county needs even though it was implemented as a transit tax. While all this is going on, each year the state politicians will find new reasons to reduce the state funding pot. In other words, nothing really will change except for more taxes and more bureaucratic red tape.
PAT, SEPTA and the other state transit agencies are breathing a huge sigh of relief over the new state budget but they aren't out of the woods with the new policy on transit funding that was passed by the state politicians. Some may squeak out a few years before being in the same position they are in now. Others may be lucky if they can make it to next year before crying about being out of money again.
In Allegheny County, the state is going to allow Allegheny County officials to impose up to a 10 percent poured drinks tax as well as a $2 per day tax on rental cars. In other words, the state politicians passed the buck to the locals.
Now, to Allegheny County Chief Executive Director Dan Onorato's (D) credit, he stated that he would not impose the new taxes until the Port Authority gets its union and management costs down more. Yet another string on the funding. Given Onorato's desire to implement the original and poorly conceived PAT hack & slash plan which left large sections of the county without any transit service, I really believe he will hold to what he is stating.
The Port Authority has a long way to go to trim costs. The union is willing to reopen the contract for negotiations however they will fight against any major concessions. Management is busy doing a smoke and mirror act with many of its costs.
There are some problems with the new funding plan for Allegheny County also. Primarily is that it is yet another "sin" tax. A poured drink tax is a targeted tax aimed at a select group of people, most of whom will have no problem taking their business across county lines. These types of "sin" taxes have proven to generate far less than projected in addition to chasing away money to other areas that are more money friendly.
Secondly, the string attached to the so-called dedicated funding by the state politicians is designed strictly to take the focus off of them the next time there is a funding crunch and place it on the local politicians. The state also must budget and tax the residents for the maximum amount of the funding even if it isn't used. Unused money from one year won't be carried over to the next year in the budget either.
Each year the state politicians will still have to do exactly as they have been doing since 1964 and budget the money. In effect, all the state politicians have done is to increase the red tape and bureaucracy since they now require the local government to tax and match to get the funding. I didn't expect anything less from the state politicians.
How I see this going down is as follows in Pittsburgh. The county will impose a small portion of the tax, around 2-4%. Some of the revenue generated will go to get matching funds but not all of it. PAT's management and union will not bring costs down much more than they already have which will keep the county from providing the full amount of money to get the state's matching funds. Probably around half of the poured drink tax revenue will be skimmed off for other county needs even though it was implemented as a transit tax. While all this is going on, each year the state politicians will find new reasons to reduce the state funding pot. In other words, nothing really will change except for more taxes and more bureaucratic red tape.
PAT, SEPTA and the other state transit agencies are breathing a huge sigh of relief over the new state budget but they aren't out of the woods with the new policy on transit funding that was passed by the state politicians. Some may squeak out a few years before being in the same position they are in now. Others may be lucky if they can make it to next year before crying about being out of money again.
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