From the Department of Cutting Off One’s Nose to Spite the Face:
U.S. Steel, in reporting a net loss of $80 million for 2023’s fourth quarter, says it might not be able to complete – in a timely manner or at all – its pending $14.9 billion subsumption by Nippon Steel of Japan.
That’s because of pending grievances over the deal by the United Steelworkers Union and what’s now expected to be a politically drawn-out U.S. government review process.
Never mind that Nippon has vowed to honor all existing USW contracts and keep what would be its new U.S. Steel subsidiary’s headquarters in Pittsburgh, with the likely outcome being a saved institution versus one that very likely could become a shadow of its former self or even a shuttered institution.
From the Department of Time to Watch Your Wallets:
In what is the first in what likely will be a wave of similar actions, downtown Pittsburgh’s iconic Grant Building could be facing possible foreclosure because of loan defaults.
As the Post-Gazette reports it, the “the legal action comes at a time when there has been growing concern about potential defaults in Downtown and elsewhere because of high office vacancy rates and hybrid work models triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
There are concerns that other Downtown high-rise office towers soon could be in the same boat.
And, of course, this all is unfolding in a climate in which government types are pledging public money to help convert vacant office towers into residential units.
“[Pittsburgh] has joined the effort, offering incentives to property owners who want to convert office buildings to apartments if they will commit to making at least 10 percent of the units affordable,” the P-G reminds. “That has been a stumbling block to some because of the high costs involved.”
But, again, taxpayers have absolutely no business subsidizing conversions that, in all but the rarest cases, make no economic sense. If private investors say such conversions are bad deals, why should taxpayers be forced into the role of venture capitalists and see their hard-earned money thrown down a rat hole?
From the Department of Continuing Allegheny County Airport Authority Misrepresentations:
One of the favorite tactics employed by the Airport Authority is to argue that “no local tax dollars” were used in this, that or the many dubious schemes hatched at Pittsburgh International Airport.
Of course, and as we already noted this past week, any money received or disbursed by the authority is, by its very nature, public money, no matter if the source be federal, state or local dollars.
But as a wag with whom we regularly converse reminds, the Airport Authority does receive more than $12 million annually (and in perpetuity) in state gambling revenue.
It is most disingenuous of the authority to claim, by omission, that none of that tax money is generated from local casinos. The Airport Authority’s continuing misrepresentations of the sources that fund so many of its questionable practices continues to be, in a word, reprehensible.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
