Fiscal Conservatism: what Pittsburgh and PA need? (Green Tree, Dallas: home, universities)
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Fiscal responsibility is something that the politicians of Pennsylvania have no idea about. All they can think about is how to spend, spend, spend.
The majority of voters in the western PA area voted to NOT use tax money to fund the two stadiums......guess what, we were totally ignored. And now we are being held hostage to pay for the third one as well. Billionaire sports teams owners hiring multi millionaire players and they can't see their way to build their own "houses". Geez, I wish the state would have paid for MY house!
The majority of people did NOT want gambling and knew without a doubt that we would see no property tax relief......guess what, we were ignored again and because of how the laws were written we haven't seen one single penny of relief. And if money ever does come through, well our esteemed Philadelphian governor promised most of it to that area. All that did was create more overpaid/overbenefitted pulic employees to run the thing.
We are constantly held hostage to the whims of the public sector unions and their outrageous demands. Positions that at one time MANY years ago needed the protection of unions, or actually were underpaid, now use them to make demands that are totally out of line with the non-union sector. Our politicians think nothing of taking expensive junkets (yeah, like the one to Charlotte among others!), giving themselves huge raises and pensions and lifelong high class healthcare coverage, giving their personal staff huge bonuses, and then expecting the taxpayers to support their voracious appetite for spending. The PHEAA employees get huge salaries and bonuses (along with their junkets), and then deny even the smallest financial aid to a student trying to better themselves with college (ask me why my daughter wouldn't even consider coming back to PA to work, other than the fact that she couldn't find a salary near what she found in NY, and no it's not near "the city"). They can't find money to fix the roads and bridges, so their solution.........make I-80 a toll road! No matter that all the businesses in the area, including several huge manufactured housing companies, will be severely damaged in the process and possibly be forced out of business. Truckers will just move up the road to NY and drive on the newly resurfaced Souther Tier parkway for free. The people who live and work around I-80 are the ones to suffer. And to top it all off, I can't even list the amount of money wasted on totally unecessary transportation items.........basically the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia public transport directors and unions are again holding the taxpayers hostage.
I have lived here all my life of 55+ years and it totally sickens me to watch what is happening here.......and then they can't for the life of them figure out why businesses don't relocate here. Instead they give huge amounts of taxpayer money to large corporations thinking they will stay. Sometimes they do, but most often they take the money and then move out later on (think USAirways). All the while the big corporations sit on their huge profits and laugh at us, and the smaller companies go find somewhere else to set up.
Until this state realizes that they have to start looking at the financial fiasco that is Pennsylvania, they will never ever be a state that will prosper in the future. And they can start with themselves........cut the size of the legislature as well as huge perks and benefits. We do NOT need the second largest full time legislature in the nation! Let them start to live within the means of the people who "hired" them, because living within their means just isn't working when they can increase their means by the flick of a pen.
Majority of the state didn't want gambling, that's a joke right? Every poll indicated that the overwhelming majority of the state supported legalizing gambling. It was a vocal minority that didn't.
I think part of the problem is that Fiscal Conservatism is considered a "Republican" idea. Republicans are not exactly popular in areas where organized labor was once so prevelent. The demagoguery between the Rich Business Owner and the Poor Factory Worker still exists here. The ratio of Democrats to Republicans is something like 5 to 1 in Pittsburgh. Mark DeSantis pledged to cut Pittsburgh spending by a mere 1% (hardly draconian), the incumbent mayor is unpopular...and still it's unlikely that DeSantis will win.
What's amazing is that Democrat governors like Ed Rendell don't seem to have a problem handing out $900 million of "business welfare" per year. Why not just lower business taxes by $900 million, instead of picking and choosing which businesses will get handouts and which ones will not? I wouldn't start a business in a state where my competition might get a subidy...and I might not! Maybe my competitor "knows somebody who knows somebody" who could get them a subsidy from the taxpayers. It sounds like a pretty corrupt system.
We need to combine Pittsburgh and Allegheny County!!!!
'nuff said. :P
The local politics are simply too fractured and will ever co-exist properly until they are forced to do so.
How will expanding a bankrupt and fiscally irresponsible city into the surrounding county help?? Some services could be shared, which could result in savings. But that doesn't require creating a huge and powerful city government which controls all of Allegheny County.
A merger would just put the cost of Pittsburgh's mismangement on to county residents, instead of forcing the city to reform: Merger Mania: Not so Fast
I see you are from TX. I have heard that TX has no income tax. I am also aware that most of TX has a booming economy.
It's been booming for 25 years here in Dallas. Dallas could have easily had a similar fate to Pittsburgh when the American oil market went bust. It's also the reason I think there is hope for Pittsburgh, the city just has to adapt and find a new industry or two.
Dallas has been relatively unaffected by the housing shakeup. A lot of fortune 500 companies have relocated here.
The cost of living here is higher than Pittsburgh, but not nearly as bad California.
Lack of a state income tax is one reason companies relocate. Sometimes cities will use other incentives the lure a prospective company.
The low housing cost is one way Pittsburgh could really market itself. It also happens to be about half way between NYC and Chicago. IMO the rivers are still a viable means of transporting goods. I guess in some aspect the city must market itself, focus on the positives.
To a lot of people who have not been to Pittsburgh in years, or maybe never at all, they imagine the smoggy, smokey, polluted city of decades past. Pittsburgh is alive with rolling hills covered in lush green trees, and in fact has less pollution than a lot of cities.
I agree that Pittsburgh's problems are basically the opposite of what people imagine. It's really not a polluted city. The problem is the politics and economics of the region.
Pittsburgh has a lot of things many people crave: historic architecture, hills, forests, rivers, scenic views, etc. But few will move here if there aren't many good jobs. It's hard to restore all of that historic architecture to its former glory when there aren't a lot of people with money moving in.
I lived in CA for 3 months. People pay millions of dollars for historic Victorian architecture there. I was amazed. I thought to myself, "Every town in PA looks like this, and these CA people think it is something special!" In Pittsburgh, Victorians are everywhere...they're a dime a dozen. The problem is that many of those areas are run down and abandoned thanks to population loss and lack of robust job growth.
It seems Boston is somewhat similar to Pittsburgh...A formerly polluted port city with with much historic architecture, narrow streets, antiquated infrastructure, top-notch universities, etc. The difference is that Boston has a robust economy, whereas Pittsburgh does not.
I think part of the problem is that Fiscal Conservatism is considered a "Republican" idea. Republicans are not exactly popular in areas where organized labor was once so prevelent. The demagoguery between the Rich Business Owner and the Poor Factory Worker still exists here. The ratio of Democrats to Republicans is something like 5 to 1 in Pittsburgh. Mark DeSantis pledged to cut Pittsburgh spending by a mere 1% (hardly draconian), the incumbent mayor is unpopular...and still it's unlikely that DeSantis will win.
What's amazing is that Democrat governors like Ed Rendell don't seem to have a problem handing out $900 million of "business welfare" per year. Why not just lower business taxes by $900 million, instead of picking and choosing which businesses will get handouts and which ones will not? I wouldn't start a business in a state where my competition might get a subidy...and I might not! Maybe my competitor "knows somebody who knows somebody" who could get them a subsidy from the taxpayers. It sounds like a pretty corrupt system.
My big problem with the GOP, is that they talk a good game (balanced budgets etc), but the reality is quite different. The GOP had control of the governorship, and both houses of the legislature during the 90's. What did they accomplish? Not a damn thing. They had total control of the state during most of Thornburg's terms as well. I don't think the Dems have ruled the state since Shapp was in office. So please, someone explain why this state is in such sad shape since GOP rule is supposed to be the magic pill that cures all ills?
I agree that the GOP has lost its way on fiscal issues, especially at the national level. Look at the spending and new entitlements authorized by the Bush administration. It's a darn shame, yes.
It seems like we need either a third party or major overhaul of the GOP. Or, if the dems want to become fiscally conservative, more power to them. But I don't see that happening!
One largeish faction Democratic party is broadly socially liberal and fiscally conservative. It would be unsurprising to me to see that wing of the party take over.
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