City, county face $8 million funding gap for G-20 (Pittsburgh: hotels, houses)

[JoeLeaphorn]

Maybe Onorato will propose taxing playgrounds to pay for it.


Mr. Onorato's spokesman, Kevin Evanto, said after the meeting that there is about an $8 million gap in funding that will have to be evenly split between the city and the county. He said that this morning's meeting came about because of a misconception by City Council members in recent weeks.

Read more: http://www.postgazette.com/pg/09243/994481-100.stm#ixzz0PnFfHmMm

[Hopes]

I would certainly hope that federal funding will cover G-20 funding gap. We're basically hosting this shindig for the federal government.

[JoeLeaphorn]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I would certainly hope that federal funding will cover G-20 funding gap. We're basically hosting this shindig for the federal government.

They would have to go back and ask for more and there is no guarantee that they would get it. Currently, the anticipated costs are between $5 million and $8 million more than what was budgeted.

[BrianTH]

From the beginning, the plan was to split the costs between the feds, the state, the county, and the city, so some gap above what the feds and state would cover was always anticipated. That article isn't very clear because it appears different people still have different understandings of the facts, but the basic story appears to be that the county and various members of the city council didn't have a common understanding of how that gap would be apportioned. There also appears to be some suggestion of anticipated overruns above the original cost estimates, but again that part is pretty unclear.

[BrianTH]

Apparently Mayor Ravenstahl held a press conference this afternoon claiming there was in fact no additional funding gap:

City Council, Allegheny County Council Officials Meet Over G-20 Funding - kdka.com (http://kdka.com/local/g20/g20.funding.meeting.2.1154416.html - broken link)

Anyway, suffice it to say I think there is obviously some confusion right now on this issue.

[JoeLeaphorn]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Apparently Mayor Ravenstahl held a press conference this afternoon claiming there was in fact no additional funding gap:

City Council, Allegheny County Council Officials Meet Over G-20 Funding - kdka.com (http://kdka.com/local/g20/g20.funding.meeting.2.1154416.html - broken link)

Anyway, suffice it to say I think there is obviously some confusion right now on this issue.

More than that. Ravenstahl is publicly challenging Onorato on the numbers. Ahh, egos!

[Hopes]

Remember the peaceful days when there wasn't a county official......

[Copanut]

Let's see, Pgh, Allegheny county, State of Pa, and the Feds. Luckily, living in the suburbs, I'm only going to get hit THREE times, you suckers in the City have to give it up to 4 taxing bodies.

What a country.

[JoeLeaphorn]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Remember the peaceful days when there wasn't a county official......

Yes. I also remember the sham committee that reorganized the government as part of the adoption of home rule. They were basically "civic leaders" and businessmen who grew tired of dealing with a three commissioner system which was, frequently, paralyzed due to political infighting. It also meant that in order to have influence, you needed to smooze at least two people.

They envisioned, instead, a system where there was a single executive, who had all of the power, and a large legislature (Council), which was too big to be effective.

They positioned it as though this would give the people more representation but that wasn't the idea. Instead, the idea was to give them more influence in County government.

Consider that Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, Heinz Field, the David Lawrence Convention Center and PNC Park were all conceived by the three commissioner system.

What has County Executive and County Council got us? Tax increment financing of big box developments which drive existing retailers out of business and create revenue gaps for the municipalities which was once home to them. A freeze on property taxes in which those citizens whose property has declined in value are paying a higher share of the tax burden than those whose homes have appreciated in value. Check out the tax map for houses in Sewickely which recently sold. You'll find houses that sold for over $500,000 which are still valued a $200,000 or less. A chief executive with so much ambition that he would rather do nothing in the hopes that this will grease his way to the Governor's mansion than make the hard choices needed to get this county on its feet.

[BusyMomofOne]

Maybe we can scale back on costs, find cheaper hotels/dining areas for them and save our county/city some more money...LOL!