PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
by Ralph R. Reiland,
Professor of Free Enterprise
Nine months before they voted to increase taxes on car rentals and poured alcohol drinks, primarily to cover the red ink at the Port Authority, members of Allegheny County Council along with County Chief Executive Dan Onorato received a copy of state Auditor General Jack Wagner's March 22 letter to Steve Bland, chief executive officer of the Port Authority.
As just one instance of waste and mismanagement at the Port Authority, Wagner pointed to the departing compensation package of the Port Authority's previous CEO:
• $106,202 for unused vacation time
• $380,214 for previous work completed after "retiring"
• $270,000 in deferred compensation
• $306,746 to reimburse the former CEO for payments he made to get credit for 20 years of prior public service, thereby qualifying him to retire at age 50 with full retirement benefits.
Altogether, that's $1,063,162. Converted into poured liquor taxes, figuring the new 10 percent tax on a $2 bottle of beer, we'd have to drink 5,315,810 beers just to pick up the parachute tab for just this one retiree.
The Port Authority's former CEO will additionally get $108,798 in retirement income from the Port Authority each year from 2005 until 2014. That's another $1,087,980 -- the tax on 5,439,900 more beers.
After 2014, the former CEO receives $102,798 every year for life. If he's lucky enough to make it to 90, that's $3,083,940 -- the tax on another 15,419,700 beers.
I don't think we can drink enough to keep this operation afloat!
Last year, as well, three managers at the Port Authority were paid $125,000. That's the tax on another 1,125,000 beers, not counting the managers' retirement packages.
As the Port Authority's new CEO, Bland says things are different now, that the aforementioned expenses are mistakes from prior administrations. That sounds good except that Mr. Bland already has charged us $45,000 in relocation expenses for his move from Albany to Pittsburgh (that's a lot of bubble wrap), plus $7,000 to buy back his vacation time after being on the job for only six months. To cover just those two miscellaneous items, that's the tax on another 260,000 beers.
Still, that's just peanuts. The real money is in the mismanaged capital projects, such as the $21 million Wabash Tunnel to nowhere, the overbuilt $22 million parking garage at South Hills Village, and the upcoming $435 million under-river tunnel to the North Side.
Traffic in the Wabash Tunnel originally was projected at 4,500 cars per day, with a connecting new bridge that would cross the Monongahela River. The bridge never materialized and traffic in the tunnel is now running at only 400 cars per day, with a cost to the taxpayers of around $20 per trip. It'd be cheaper to provide free cabs.
With the Port Authority's parking lot at South Hills Village, the top four floors of the seven-story white elephant were blocked off during most of last year because of no business. In a move that will force more of its customers to use the underutilized garage, the Port Authority announced last month that it will close its free park-and-ride lot at South Hills Village.
The North Shore Connector is 1.1 miles long, an easy walk. Still, the same government that says we should get more fresh air and walk more, that we're too fat, is spending $435 million to stick us underground and get us off our feet.
Now we find that the Port Authority has moved on up from its former digs in Manchester to a deluxe apartment in the sky -- right next door to the swanky Duquesne Club! The price tag is $15.5 million -- $7.8 million for a lease that expires in 2010 and $7.7 million for renovations and furnishings.
Calling it "unconscionable that management would continue to lease prime office space at taxpayer expense that is unnecessary," Wagner said that senior managers of the Port Authority should return to the previous headquarters building in Manchester that the transit agency already owns and which is currently 50 percent vacant.
Wagner noted that Port Authority executives had moved out of the Manchester building in the North Side just three years after spending $4.7 million on renovations and furnishings. Added to the $15.5 million, that's the tax on another 101,000,000 beers.
And we should pay more for beer for all of the above? I'd say it's time for another Whiskey Rebellion.
---- Ralph R. Reiland is an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.
Ralph R. Reiland
Phone: 412-884-4541
E-mail: rrreiland@aol.com.
"Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon Professor of Free Enterprise at Robert Morris University, the owner Amel's Restaurant, and a columnist with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review."
