Here we go again: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says that if the Philadelphia Eagles decide they want a new football stadium, “It’s going to be in the city of Philadelphia.”
Well, galllllll-leeee, Governor. Thanks for the news. But, as in Pittsburgh, taxpayers want to know how deep the attempted dive will be into their pockets and how empty they’ll be at the end of this latest pending molestation by the barons of sport and their government accomplices.
And it could be a whopper of an accosting with price estimates exceeding $2 billion. And that’s just for the Eagles and not taking into account what the Steelers might demand (though some anecdotal reports have it in the billions of dollars as well).
By the way, both franchises’ values keep increasing with the Eagles’ now pegged at $10 billion-plus and the Steelers being valued at $8.7 billion.
We thinks both ownerships have what you might call ample financial wherewithal and borrowing power to pay their own way. Three words to both franchises: Get a loan – as most of the mere mortals known as taxpayers must if they want to build something.
It’s official: Shell has put its much ballyhooed and heavily taxpayer “incentivized” petro-chemical plant in Beaver County on the market. But the Pittsburgh Business Times says the “sale could reach $8 billion, well below the $14 billion Shell invested.”
A bit of an initial miscalculation there, eh?
All, apparently, has not been all well in plastic-pellet land, the product the “cracker” plant makes, even though Shell says things have been on the upswing recently. Shell says pellet-making no longer is its core business interest.
Shell received a sweetheart tax break to build the supposed be-all and end-all economic development for Beaver County — $1.65 billion in tax breaks over 25 years (or about $66 million annually).
But the facility along the Ohio River hasn’t lived up to its advanced billing, neither in job creation or promised “downstream” industry creation. So, what will any new owner do to turn things around? If it’s even more taxpayer incentives, the public will know it’s being taken for a ride down the Ohio.
Shell likely will take a bath on any sales deal. Taxpayers no longer should.
Something’s missing here?: The Phoenix Business Journal reports that the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport has become “an economic powerhouse.”
Per the report:
“This year, the airport is booming in more ways than one. Over its most recent fiscal year, it set records for operating revenue, net income, aviation fuel sales and vehicle parking revenue. Additional growth could be ahead through two on-site real estate developments: Gateway East, a 273-acre master-planned business park that could deliver 3.5 million square feet of space for large industrial users, a hotel, restaurants, medical offices and retail and SkyBridge Arizona, a 363-acre master-planned aeronautical and commercial business park that is estimated to cost $1 billion and include 4 million square feet once fully built out.”
But we find it more than a little curious that the journal lists notable “airport developments elsewhere” – at Washington’s Dulles International Airport; Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; Denver International Airport; Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport and Nashville International Airport – but there’s not a mention of Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT).
That’s despite the Allegheny County Airport Authority regularly touting all the supposedly grand “economic development” projects at PIT that are the veritable be-alls and end-alls fueling marvelous growth for the region.
Never mind that the economic growth and jobs data reflect none of that.
Perhaps be-all and end-alls aren’t what they used to be.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
