Colin McNickle At Large

More notes on the state of things

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

The Allegheny County Airport Authority this month touted how Qatar Airways, beginning Oct. 11, will begin twice-weekly cargo service to Europe and the Middle East.

 

“It’s a game changer for the region,” Christina Cassotis, the authority’s CEO, told the Post-Gazette.

 

But there’s a dirty economics secret to this latest “game changer.” Cassotis tells the P-G the authority paid “significant” money to lure Qatar. But she would not define “significant” with an actual amount.

 

But don’t worry, Cassotis says “We’re going to work really hard to make sure this works.”

 

The Airport Authority has been making it a bad habit of touting great advances in market-based service that, in reality, are bought. Think of the half-billion dollars being paid to Condor Airlines over two years for service to Germany. Think of the $800,000 being paid to Wow Air for service to Iceland.

 

Now comes the Qatar deal. But unlike previous deals, Cassotis won’t say what the subsidy is.

 

That’s not acceptable. The Allegheny County Airport Authority is a public authority. The public has every right to know the particulars of this latest exercise in pump priming – the amount and whence the money is coming.

 

Forbes magazine’s latest estimate of the value of the Pittsburgh Steelers is $2.45 billion. That’s smack dab in the middle — 16th — among the National Football League’s 32 franchises.

 

That’s up 9 percent from last year. Among all professional sports franchises, the Steelers’ value ranks 28th.

 

Heinz Field, which opened in 2001, cost $357 million to build. The Steelers paid just over 27 percent of the total cost, or $76 million. Taxpayers covered the rest, just under 73 percent, or $281 million.

 

Inquiring minds still want to know when the Steelers are going to reimburse taxpayers.

 

The Seattle Times reports that no fewer than 118 locales in the United States and Canada will be bidding for Amazon’s second headquarters campus (known as HQ2). Pittsburgh, of course, is among them.

 

And if Pittsburgh officials think it would be a good idea to send officials of the internet retailing giant any kind of grease-the-skids gift to enhance their eventual bid (due Oct. 19), think again.

 

As The Times reports, Amazon refused to accept a 21-foot tall cactus that a Southern Arizona economic development group planned to send on behalf of Greater Tuscon.

 

But as reporter Matt Day noted, dryly we can only assume: “Amazon continues to seek other gifts, namely tax breaks and other development incentives to offset a portion of the cost of the new headquarters.”

 

The Pitt Maverick informs us of a troublingly interesting Sept. 15 protest by a group of 26 students from the Fossil-Free Pitt Coalition and United Students Against Sweatshops.

 

Among their list of a dozen-plus demands were that Pitt student workers be paid “a minimum, living wage of $15 an hour”; that student loan debt be canceled and that free tuition be offered; and that Pitt declare itself a “sanctuary campus.”

 

This requires a translation:

 

These protesters support fewer jobs for students; forcing others to pay their debts and for their college educations; and believe the rule of law is a dead letter.

 

But the most striking of their demands was this: “That all campus cops are disarmed and that city cops are banned from campus.”

 

Oh, good – let’s make an entire university an uncontested shooting gallery for the deranged.

 

The Federalist Papers Project had some intellectual fun at the Pitt protesters’ expense.

 

To wit. in regard to a demand that Pitt’s chancellor take a 10 percent pay cut to hike employee pay, it did a little simple math.

 

Pitt has about 5,000 instructors and 55,000 employees; the chancellor is paid $525,000 a year, The Maverick noted.

 

“Taking a 10 percent pay cut and spreading it around (to) the rest of the employees would mean that each employee would see an annual raise of one dollar,” writes Robert Gehl.

 

“Let’s say the (chancellor) works for free! Then the employees will get an annual raise of $10.”

 

Concludes Gehl: “This shows the narrow-minded stupidity of today’s young leftists. They think the wealthy – if squeezed dry – have enough money to sustain everyone else. It’s not only immoral, it’s just idiotic.”

 

Indeed, it is.

 

The Pitt Maverick, by the way, defines itself as “an independent journal run by students at the University of Pittsburgh” and a “champion of free speech, freedom of thought, rugged individualism and American Exceptionalism.”

 

Talk about a deep breath of fresh air.

 

Colin McNickle is a senior fellow and media specialist at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Colin McNickle
Colin McNickle

Colin received his B.G.S. from Ohio University. The 40-year journalism veteran joined the Institute in October 2016. That followed a 22-year career with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 18 as director of editorial pages for Trib Total Media. Prior that, Colin had a long and varied career in media — from radio, newspapers and magazines, to United Press International and The Associated Press.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Weekly insights on the markets and financial planning.

Recent Posts