There he goes again. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who never met a government intrusion he didn’t embrace, says he will sign something called the “Wage Equity Law.”
The measure, passed by Philadelphia Council in December, prohibits employers from asking about a job applicant’s wage history. Employers also are barred from discriminating against applicants who refuse to divulge that history.
This, supposedly, will bridge the “pay gap” affecting women and minorities, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer. But there seems to be no empirical evidence suggesting such a result.
What it actually will do is rob employers of one tool used to gauge a prospective employee’s value.
To wit, years of stagnant wages might indicate an uninspired worker with questionable productivity while regular raises could indicate an inspired and productive person.
Philadelphia’s “Wage Equity Law” is the latest in a long line of “progressive” feel-good measures that will intrude on a company’s right to hire those it feels will best serve its needs. Surely, such a law will dissuade new companies from locating in the City of Brotherly Love and might even force existing companies to consider leaving it.
The sheer folly of turning taxpayers into venture capitalists for retail development has come into stark relief (again) with news that the Pittsburgh Mills mall in Frazer sold for $100 in foreclosure on Jan. 18.
No, that’s not a typo. It wasn’t meant to be $100 million. One hundred dollars in the correct amount of the foreclosure sale. The banking institution that foreclosed on the mall was the only bidder, which gives you an idea what the marketplace thinks of the value of this sinking/sunken enterprise.
What was touted as a “super-regional shopping mall” when in opened in 2005 never lived up to expectations. It cost $226 million to build, subsidized with $50 million in tax-increment financing.
TIFs, as they are known, use all or a portion of the expected increased tax revenue from a redeveloped site to pay for a bond or bonds that pay for infrastructure and other site improvements needed for the project to succeed.
I first sounded the dangers of TIFs at the Tribune-Review back in the 1990s. And I was roundly pooh-poohed by those who called me a “naysayer,” against any and all “progress.”
This institute long has warned of their dangers as well. Because retail is an industry with little or no multiplier effect, it’s not a very good bang for the public buck.
And as Frank Gamrat, the Allegheny Institute’s senior research associate, reminded last fall, retail tends to do nothing more than shift dollars from one part of the community to another as shoppers pursue the next new strip, outlet or mall development.
The future of the Pittsburgh Mills mall — its formal name is the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills — remains a large question mark. It is a shell of its much ballyhooed debut.
And while published reports seem to indicate that some public officials have come to recognize the error of past TIF ways, the public must continue to be on guard against such a dubious public policy that too often ends as a pig in a poke.
A surge in table games boosted Pennsylvania’s casinos to a record year, the state says.
According to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, table game receipts increased for the seventh-consecutive year in 2016, to $853 million.
Add in slots receipts (flat for the sixth-straight year) and total gambling receipts in the Keystone State last year were $3.2 billion.
It’s a phenomenal number. But do remember this: This income represents money that gamblers have lost.
Noted Richard McGarvey, a spokesman for the gaming board, the growth in table games revenue “shows that there’s still a lot of unmet demand.”
“That speaks well for the future growth of table games in this state,” he told The Morning Call of Allentown.
But, again, let’s place this in perspective: “The State” is banking on more people losing even more money.
Colin McNickle is a senior fellow and media specialist at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
