This past week the Auditor General’s office released its mandated quadrennial audit of the Port Authority, covering the period from July 1, 2007 through December 31, 2012. Critical years for readers of Allegheny Institute work—a look back at the Policy Brief archives will find the enactment of drink and car rental taxes, the threat of mass retirements, a labor contract that followed talk of a strike, proposed alternative uses of the drink and car rental tax money, flexing of highway money, the completion of the North Shore Connector, and the approval of the current labor contract were some of the highlights of that time period.
While titled a performance audit, it is not possible to tell from the audit how well PAT is performing on indicators over the life of the audit on things like per passenger costs, cost per revenue hour/mile, etc. There is a table of ridership statistics taken from PAT data in the audit, but without the commensurate operating costs for those years operating indicators cannot be obtained.
The AG’s report took some time to look back at the recommendations made by the previous audit completed in 2007 which reached back to 2002. That audit suggested a change in the makeup of the PAT board, something that the agency itself could not do since that is governed by state law. As we noted last summer, the law was changed and a larger board with staggered, term-limited appointees made by a combination of state and County officials is now in place. The 2007 audit focused on the Authority’s agreement to lease Downtown office space when it still owned office space in the North Side. As of now it appears a partial demolition of the North Side space will be completed next month and the Downtown lease goes through 2019 as a result of a ten year extension.
The most significant detail on changes at PAT deals with the changes made to pensions and other retirement benefits at the managerial and labor level since 2007. Those changes cannot be understated; the AG’s audit points out that it will take a long time for the “…generous benefits provided in the past”. As with many public sector changes to retiree benefits, changes often fall on new hires and when they replace workers with the old set of benefits the costs will gradually come down.
Lastly, the audit follows up on what the 2007 audit called “poor planning” of three capital projects (the West Busway/Wabash Tunnel, Stage II light rail, and the North Shore Connector) where the audit made specific recommendations on the Wabash Tunnel and the Connector. The AG’s recent audit felt that PAT had made some strides on covering operating costs of the tunnel and was told by PAT that at this time there is no intention to undertake the deferred parts of the Connector project (a connection to the convention center). The AG’s office was told that “…the agency has moved from system expansion to system preservation and improvement”. How plans for a proposed Bus Rapid Transit line in the Oakland to Downtown corridor fits in with that outlook is not yet determined and was outside the scope of the time period in the audit.
