Monday, April 21, 2008
Merger Opportunities Lost Drip by Drip
One of the points we have tried to hammer home following the release of the Advisory Committee’s report on merging the City and the County is that it becomes a real heavy-lifting task when the details are spelled out. How do you merge two departments when there are different labor contracts? How do you account for services that are not duplicative? And what about the independent entities that carry out vital public services but aren’t a part of the elected machinery of government?
Case in point: legislation is pending in a City Council committee to extend the life of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority until 2045 so that its life span coincides with debt it is about to issue this June. Now a region supposedly knee-deep with officials that won’t tolerate duplicative services would have to say something about this. While there is no County water authority per se, there is Alcosan, the sanitary authority, other water authorities in other parts of the county, as well as a heavy dose of the private sector involved in getting water to homes and businesses. Consider that the Water and Sewer Authority entered into a complicated financial transaction with the City of Pittsburgh in the mid 1990s to provide the City with some much needed cash. Department of Water employees were spun off into the authority and now the Authority pays the City a payment in lieu of taxes. Not the best example of governmental efficiency for sure.
But this begs the question—if the City and County were really committed to the merger and looking at all points possible, would the Authority be getting such a long term lease on its life span?
Case in point: legislation is pending in a City Council committee to extend the life of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority until 2045 so that its life span coincides with debt it is about to issue this June. Now a region supposedly knee-deep with officials that won’t tolerate duplicative services would have to say something about this. While there is no County water authority per se, there is Alcosan, the sanitary authority, other water authorities in other parts of the county, as well as a heavy dose of the private sector involved in getting water to homes and businesses. Consider that the Water and Sewer Authority entered into a complicated financial transaction with the City of Pittsburgh in the mid 1990s to provide the City with some much needed cash. Department of Water employees were spun off into the authority and now the Authority pays the City a payment in lieu of taxes. Not the best example of governmental efficiency for sure.
But this begs the question—if the City and County were really committed to the merger and looking at all points possible, would the Authority be getting such a long term lease on its life span?
