It became abundantly clear Thursday last that Allegheny County Chief Executive (ACE) Sara Innamorato is decidedly unserious about paring the county’s bloated employee ranks. And she employed rank partisanship to deliver the message that rank excess will continue to be the hallmark of her governance.
As the Tribune-Review reported it, the county, on the same day, opened an internet portal “to entice federal employees to explore their options with the county.”
“The idea,” the Trib reported, “is to provide a soft landing for any of the 16,000 federal employees in the Pittsburgh region who may lose their jobs” in the Trump administration’s government downsizing efforts.
And Innamorato wasted little time in casting her entreaty as a political hit piece:
“While federal leaders are creating an atmosphere of chaos and cruelty in the federal government, we are demonstrating that we can run a government that is both competent and compassionate at Allegheny County,” she said. “We are committed to being an employer that treats its workers with dignity and respect, so in turn they can offer excellent service to the more than 1.2 million residents of Allegheny County.”
Spokeswoman Abigail Gardner told the Trib that the county has more than 6,000 employees and has more than 1,000 current job openings.
Never mind that Allegheny Institute Research Director Eric Montarti, in an updated point of order last October, documented just how bloated Allegheny County is when stacked up against peer counties nationwide.
Here’s what Montarti ascertained (in Policy Brief Vol. 24, No. 36):
“On per-capita revenue—which takes into account taxes, fees, intergovernmental revenue and all other sources across all governmental funds—Allegheny County ranked second highest and was 33.2 percent above the peer-group average.”
How about on per-capita expenditures, which measures general government functions, public safety, health and others? “Allegheny County ranked highest and was 46.5 percent above the peer-group average.”
Then there’s full-time equivalent employees per 1,000 people: “Allegheny County ranked second-highest and was 4.1 percent above the peer-group average,” Montarti concluded.
As we noted at the time, surely there are operations to pare. Yet Innamorato and County Council chose to raise property taxes by 36 percent (after the ACE initially proposed hiking them by 46.5 percent).
And now, the county is encouraging dismissed federal workers to apply for those 1,000 vacant county positions, thus preserving that bloat.
So much for an Allegheny County government that’s “competent and compassionate” for taxpayers, right? Where’s the “dignity and respect” for them?
County taxpayers should not be footing the cruel bill for Sara Innamorato’s political kindness campaign.
The only prudent thing for the ACE to do is to eliminate those 1,000 vacant positions. It would be the only responsible thing she’s done thus far.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the
Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
