We raised the timely point of order here a week ago that, in taxpayer “rescue,” this, that and any other public agency should not be allowed to blame the coronavirus pandemic for their past, chronic, failures.
The Port Authority of Allegheny County, the mass-transit agency with its regularly higher-than-peer-group costs in a number of budget areas, comes to mind.
As does the Allegheny County Airport Authority, which learned the hard way – or has it? — that public dollars cannot be used to command passenger and cargo services by bribing those services to open shop at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT).
And now, that very same Airport Authority is blaming the coronavirus pandemic for the grinding halt to development of the $1.1 billion (and promised to increase) new terminal project at PIT.
Indeed, air travel itself has been severely affected. The airlines, some very well facing bankruptcy reorganization or even liquidation, are begging for a bailout.
But there’s an interesting nuance in the story of the Airport Authority halting work on the terminal project. It comes deep within a Post-Gazette dispatch by reporter Mark Belko.
But, first, a little background:
The authority loves to tell the tale that “no local taxpayer dollars” will be used to construct a facility that more than a few sharp minds have questioned as “dubious.”
Airlines that use PIT will be paying off the bonds used to finance the project, officials say. But, make no mistake, there will be public dollars in the project from local and non-local sources. Think gambling and shale gas money. Think state and federal grants.
But the simple fact of the matter remains that the Airport Authority still does not have final lease agreements with those airlines. And that, plus the pandemic’s resultant financial crisis, could be the double whammy that scuttles this project.
As Frank Gamrat, executive director of the Allegheny Institute, notes:
“(The airlines) were reluctant well before the virus hit (to sign leases); with them losing money hand over fist, as this thing drags on, they will be less inclined to sign on for quite a while.”
So, is the PIT terminal project – one pretty much foisted on the public with little in the way of advance notice and even less public input – now in jeopardy?
Could the terminal be terminal?
“You can’t borrow money unless you have a means for repayment,” Gamrat reminds.
Given that no small amount of money already has been expended on this project, will taxpayers be left holding the bag for it?
And there is yet another point:
Should not the lease agreements with the airlines been signed, sealed and delivered before so much money was expended in design and other work?
Again, will the coronavirus pandemic be blamed if taxpayers are grabbed by the scruffs of their necks and hoisted on the “public purpose” hook?
Or, sans the pandemic, would lease agreements ever have been reached with the airlines and, given the Airport Authority’s cart-before-the-horse mentality, would there have been a deep dive into taxpayer pockets nonetheless?
And, just for good measure, let’s throw in this thought:
If those lease agreements come to fruition, they’d better be public documents. Should the authority and airlines argue them to be “proprietary business documents,” they must be reminded that this public agency, supposedly operating for the public benefit and, in one form or another, using public money, must operate with full transparency.
Sound public policy demands it.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
