Monday, January 16, 2006
Day Surge Puts 41% More People In the City
Schizophrenia Over Commuters
Any marketing of Pittsburgh invariably touts its great hospitals and universities as hallmarks of the City’s leadership in education and health. Likewise, new taxpayer funded stadiums for professional sports teams and cultural attractions are prized as contributors to the City’s economic well-being. State, federal, county and city governments are major employers and create numerous spin-offs in the legal and other professions.
All of these have one thing in common. They produce jobs, many of which are filled with commuters. We build busways, light rail systems and highways to get people into the City where they help create wealth in the form of business and personal income, raise the market value of property, buy lots of stuff, and park at great cost. Thus, it is bizarre that while the City purports to want as many commuters and visitors as possible to come, with more always better, it simultaneously complains that commuters do not pay their fair share of the cost of City services.
Would the City like it better if no commuters or visitors came? Clearly, the answer is no. The City’s population cannot fill all the jobs of all the governments and businesses that operate and pay taxes to and enrich the City.
But, that’s not the worst of it. Commuters, visitors and non-resident owners of commercial property are already contributing far more to the City’s tax coffers than they use in services. The new municipal services fee, the business payroll tax, property taxes by non-residents, parking taxes, the non-resident share of the RAD tax and the amusement tax all add up to more than the City’s public safety budget.
It is not the fault of commuters, visitors and non-residents that the City cannot control its spending which, on a per capita basis ranks, among the highest of mid-sized U.S. cities. This is the same City that refuses to do meaningful privatization and cannot even agree to allow its purchasing department to be consolidated with the County to save money.
Cognitive dissonance and schizophrenia regarding the City are all too commonplace in the public policy arena.
Any marketing of Pittsburgh invariably touts its great hospitals and universities as hallmarks of the City’s leadership in education and health. Likewise, new taxpayer funded stadiums for professional sports teams and cultural attractions are prized as contributors to the City’s economic well-being. State, federal, county and city governments are major employers and create numerous spin-offs in the legal and other professions.
All of these have one thing in common. They produce jobs, many of which are filled with commuters. We build busways, light rail systems and highways to get people into the City where they help create wealth in the form of business and personal income, raise the market value of property, buy lots of stuff, and park at great cost. Thus, it is bizarre that while the City purports to want as many commuters and visitors as possible to come, with more always better, it simultaneously complains that commuters do not pay their fair share of the cost of City services.
Would the City like it better if no commuters or visitors came? Clearly, the answer is no. The City’s population cannot fill all the jobs of all the governments and businesses that operate and pay taxes to and enrich the City.
But, that’s not the worst of it. Commuters, visitors and non-resident owners of commercial property are already contributing far more to the City’s tax coffers than they use in services. The new municipal services fee, the business payroll tax, property taxes by non-residents, parking taxes, the non-resident share of the RAD tax and the amusement tax all add up to more than the City’s public safety budget.
It is not the fault of commuters, visitors and non-residents that the City cannot control its spending which, on a per capita basis ranks, among the highest of mid-sized U.S. cities. This is the same City that refuses to do meaningful privatization and cannot even agree to allow its purchasing department to be consolidated with the County to save money.
Cognitive dissonance and schizophrenia regarding the City are all too commonplace in the public policy arena.
