Allegheny County’s operating employment headcount is proposed to decrease from 6,149 to 5,484 (665 positions, or 10.8 percent) next year. Despite this, expenses for personnel and fringe benefits are projected to grow from $546.4 million to $568.4 million ($22 million, or 4 percent).
Introduction: In October 2024, an Allegheny Institute Policy Brief outlined a number of key problem areas facing the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). PASSHE is comprised of 14 universities across the commonwealth (California, Edinboro, Clarion, Indiana, Lock Haven, Millersville, Slippery Rock, Mansfield, Shippensburg, Bloomsburg, Kutztown, East Stroudsburg, West Chester and Cheyney). Two consolidated universities were created from six universities in recent years: PennWest (California, Clarion, and Edinboro) and Commonwealth (Mansfield, Lock Haven and Bloomsburg).
That Brief reported on the major long-term slide in applications and enrollment as well as the huge increase in the acceptance rate that was accompanied by substantial lessening of entrance requirements. Indeed, most recently, several schools have dropped SAT or ACT scores as a requirement and some no longer require a minimum high school grade point average. The only enforced requirement at those schools is proof of graduation from high school.
There’s no doubt that Pennsylvania will have to up its game to meet the massive increase in electricity generation required to power the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution now a full step in the front door.
How best to do that, however, remains the paramount question, says Frank Gamrat, executive director of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.
“But time is running out as the demand for artificial intelligence in computing is growing rapidly,” he stresses (in Policy Brief Vol. 25, No. 34).
Two very large red flags are being raised by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy in its latest numbers-crunching of passenger traffic and costs at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT).
But first, a brief overview.
“So far in 2025, PIT passenger counts (based on airport reporting) have been lower for five of the seven months through July compared to the same period in 2024,” says Jake Haulk, president-emeritus of the Pittsburgh think tank (in Policy Brief Vol. 25, No. 30).
“Only January and April posted increases,” the Ph.D. economist notes. “June’s decline of 3.7 percent and July’s 3 percent drop have been quite large, totaling 69,694 passengers compared to the passenger count for the same two months in 2024.”
And Haulk does not see the downward trend abating.
