Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor says it’s not the size of the bonuses that some county Airport Authority/Pittsburgh International Airport officials are receiving that’s raising his eyebrows — but how those bonuses are used to calculate those officials’ pensions.
But O’Connor should be concerned about the size of those bonuses (and some salaries, too). For they are an outrageous abuse of the public purse and its trust.
As the Post-Gazette’s Mark Belko reported on Friday, O’Connor has gone to court “in an effort to block the retirement board from including the bonuses in calculating the pensions of airport employees.
“In a complaint filed in Common Pleas Court last month, Mr. O’Connor argued that counting the bonuses ‘jeopardizes the financial integrity of the pension system’ at a time when it is only 31 percent funded.”
In a nutshell, in dispute is what state laws and/or IRS codes should be followed to make those calculations. And if bonus payments are to be included, how much of them should be. Even the Airport Authority says it agrees with O’Connor that they should not be.
Simply put, the more money that is considered in the pension calculation translates into a larger monthly pension payment.
Per the P-G, “Ira Weiss, the controller’s attorney, said factoring in the bonuses ‘grossly inflates the benefits’ for those workers. He contended one recent authority retiree was in line to receive a pension of $14,000 a month” – while the average county pension is $2,600 monthly.
We’ll let this one, with multiple fields of weeds, wend its way through the courts. But the lawsuit is the perfect jumping off point to have a serious discussion about the size of too many of these Airport Authority bonuses and salaries.
As the P-G’s Belko notes:
“Perhaps the most well-publicized [bonuses] have gone to CEO Christina Cassotis, who received a $254,718 bonus last year, a $240,300 bonus in 2022, and a $184,500 bonus for 2021. That’s on top of a salary that totaled $566,040 last year.”
Pretty much guaranteed bonuses, we would remind, that are spelled out in her employment contract.
“Based on a right-to-know request filed by the [P-G], eight other current or former [Airport Authority] executives earned bonuses ranging from $40,648 to $85,036 last year and from $22,200 to $66,300 in 2022. Salaries for those employees ranged from $210,355 to $306,514.
“The lawsuit listed similar bonus payments to authority execs,” Belko writes.
Now, public agencies – and make no mistake, the county Airport Authority is a public agency – have an irritating habit of defending large salaries and/or bonuses in one of two ways or both:
First, they’ll argue that such payouts are “needed” to attract and retain “top talent” and to compete with like authorities elsewhere.
But when an operation the size of the Allegheny County Airport Authority is, in the case of Christina Cassotis, handing out a salary and bonus on par with far larger airport operations, the public has every right to question the payout.
And, second, they’ll argue, usually dismissively and always incorrectly, that “no public dollars” are involved; everything is covered by fees paid by the airlines to use the airport or other monies generated by airport operations.
But, again, the Airport Authority is a public authority. And every cent it receives and spends is a public cent. Thus, the public has every right to question payouts that, in too many cases, don’t pass the sniff test.
While we’re glad to see Controller O’Connor questioning what is the proper and lawful way to factor in, if at all, hefty Airport Authority bonuses into employees’ ultimate pension payouts, he also should be questioning some of those smelly salary and bonus numbers to begin with.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
