Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto long has been the king of proffering false public policy choices. Think of his steadfast refusal to privatize the long-beleaguered and long-abused (by public officials) Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA).
According to the mayor, handing over a “public asset” to a private concern would only hurt the public. Never mind how for decades the PWSA firmly planted its thumb to its nose and waggled its fingers furiously at the safe and economical delivery of water to city residents.
And never mind that the “profit motive” that public officials so regularly deride in such discussions is a red herring. For that very profit motive is what compels private companies to operate as efficiently as possible and, in turn, keep costs down — for everyone.
And lest we forget, the state regulates public utilities, no matter whether “publicly” or privately owned.
But Peduto is at it again with his false public policy choices — these days with his proposal to force city employers to offer employees yet another sick-leave benefit.
As you’ll recall, Peduto set up a measure that would require employers to offer, in addition to regular paid sick time off, specific paid time off for Covid-19 infections.
As Peduto put it:
“Due to failed federal action, workers should not have to choose between their family’s health during a worldwide pandemic and their ability to pay their bills.
“In Pittsburgh, we’re used to stepping up when Washington fails, and will do so again to protect our people from Covid-19.”
So, at a time when many businesses operating on thin margins to begin with have seen their bottom lines shattered – oftentimes by arbitrary and capricious government edicts — government seeks to impose yet another cost that the private sector cannot pay and that government has no business imposing in the first place.
Far from “protecting” the people of Pittsburgh, this additional burden on businesses very well could destroy what city government for some perverted reason believes to be a golden goose worth plucking again and again and again.
Far from “stepping up,” this is only stepping on, which is horrid public policy.
There’s a Wall Street Journal report that should be rocking the Allegheny County Airport Authority to its soul.
The coronavirus pandemic, of course, forced the authority to suspend work on the controversial $1 billion-plus terminal reconfiguration project at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT).
While officials of the already heavily bailed-out airline industry have been insisting that tanked business travel will begin to come back with a roar in the new year, the reality likely is far different.
An analysis in The Journal suggests that from 19 percent to 36 percent of all heretofore “normal” business travel will be lost forever.
Considering that it is robust business travel that subsidizes leisure travel (and, concomitantly, determines flight routes and their frequency) the “need” for a very expensive PIT revamping comes into even more serious question.
“The worst-case scenario—losing more than one-third of all business travel—would reshape air travel dramatically,” says The Journal’s Scott McCartney.
And the airports they serve with them.
McCartney says that some “big-company CEOs” already have indicated that some efficiencies developed during the pandemic will endure, such as reduced travel spending.
“Faced with a loss of business travel, big airlines will no doubt try to raise ticket prices for leisure passengers to make up for reduced revenue,” he writes. “But that may be difficult.”
“Low-cost carriers represent about 20 percent of U.S. airline capacity and can force airlines to match low prices. A lot of leisure travel is discretionary and if it gets too expensive, not as many people will go,” McCartney reminds.
Do remember that the Airport Authority did not have signed airline agreements for the project in hand before it began spending millions of dollars on it.
While no one could have predicted the pandemic, the authority certainly could have served the public better by not putting the cart before the horse.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
