Pittsburgh’s latest brilliant plan to attempt to tax its way to prosperity appears to have died on the vine. And Pittsburghers will be richer for its demise.
As we first commented in early August, citing a Post-Gazette report, draft legislation, that ended up never being formally introduced in the Pennsylvania House, would have allowed the city to impose new fees or taxes – or divert revenue from existing taxes – to help revitalize a Downtown plagued with historically high office vacancy rates and, as a result, plunging real estate valuations.
The proposal was billed the “Downtown Reinvestment Program,” or DRIP for short. Talk about dripping our way to further malaise.
As this scrivener reminded on Aug. 9:
“Among the particulars in the draft bill:
“Money raised, either through unspecified taxes or fees, ‘could be used to help fund the conversion of faltering office buildings to residential or to fill ground-floor or lower-level commercial spaces,’ the P-G reports.
“But that’s certainly not taxpayers’ responsibility. And as we’ve repeatedly said, shaking down taxpayers to cover the cost of something that’s generally cost-prohibitive certainly doesn’t make that something more ‘affordable.’
“And the ‘filling’ of commercial spaces, again using public dollars, certainly smacks of government central planning and command economics.”
But the even more unacceptable part of this draft legislation is that it would have allowed taxing jurisdictions statewide to create separate authorities “to manage such programs, award funding for eligible projects, enter contracts and issue bonds,” per the P-G.
Gee, what could go wrong. Sounds more than a bit like the long-ago rejected “Regional Renaissance Initiative,” but writ even larger. Both would have fostered among the poorest of public policies — yet another unelected bureaucracy to “manage” yet another commandeered market.
To think central planners get paid – many with taxpayer money, no less – to think up this stuff. Good grief.
Though obviously stalled, some observers say DRIP might not be dead. It might come to life in a new legislative session. But DRIP should be left to drown under the weight of its own hubris.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
