The Post-Gazette’s editorial page reports that the same Tuffy Shallenberger who wants a public-private partnership to pay for a massive expansion of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds’ Station Square soccer stadium owes more than $300,000 in back property taxes to Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh.
That’s for the privately owned stadium and surrounding parking lots.
The team calls most of the property tax arrearage an “oversight.” A $300,000 “oversight”? Come now.
Amazingly, the P-G editorial calls that a mere “fly in the ointment” to publicly subsidize an expanded stadium, a subsidization that it says it would favor.
“(W)e would support some public assistance to the Riverhounds project as an investment in a growing community asset that needs a boost to get to the next level … ,” it says.
Millions of public dollars already have been earmarked for the expanded Riverhounds’ stadium but not disbursed as of last Thursday, according to Eric Montarti, the Allegheny Institute’s research director.
But why in the world should a private enterprise that touts its rosy future fortunes – and, lest one forget, has become, for whatever reason, a property tax scofflaw – be subsidized by taxpayers yet again turned into venture capitalists?
It should not be. Not in any way, shape or form.
Additionally, but more shockingly, the P-G editorial says that “conversations about successor agreements have been quietly happening for some time” with the Pirates and Steelers for their new leases at PNC Park and Acrisure Stadium that expire in a few short years.
“Some numbers that have been floated are $900 million for upgrades to the football stadium and $600 million for the baseball stadium,” the P-G says.
Whoa!
“These informal, ad hoc conversations benefit the teams, because they can maneuver pieces quietly into place on their own terms. It would be better for a commission or working group to have formal discussions,” the editorial says, “including team executives, public officials, the SEA and other stakeholders.”
Allow us to translate: These “informal, ad hoc conversations” are secret talks. Sorry, but any negotiations for any more public money for these tax-exempt playgrounds for the Barons of Sport must be conducted publicly.
That said, the bottom line here is that there should be no more public money for either stadium, especially given the shafting taxpayers received when they were built.
In fact, the respective stadiums should be conveyed to the Pirates and Steelers, they should be returned to the tax rolls and the franchises then should pay for any and all upgrades.
In conclusion, the P-G editorial says “sports help define Pittsburgh’s identity, and the emergence of a fourth professional powerhouse [supposedly the Riverhounds] would only add to the city’s character and appeal.”
But the editorial fails to note that such facilities, in study after study, are shown to have a de minimis effect on economic growth, a fact driven home by Pittsburgh’s stagnant economy, despite all the cheerleading otherwise.
To its demerit, the PG says the Riverhounds “can use a little public help to become established in Pittsburgh” and that “the argument for massive taxpayer subsidies is less clear for profitable corporate behemoths.”
Sorry, but no – there’s absolutely no argument for taxpayers to subsidize the Riverhounds, Pirates or Steelers. To argue otherwise is intellectual dishonesty at its worst.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
