Now that a second lawsuit has been filed over Allegheny County’s broken and patently unconstitutional property tax assessment system, we are left to wonder yet again when county officials will do the right thing and conduct a long overdue countywide reassessment.
In her lawsuit, a Churchill homeowner starkly lays out the gross disparities in assessments on her street among comparable properties that she says has forced her to pay an unfairly large share of the property tax burden.
A lawsuit filed by Pittsburgh Public Schools is pending.
Make no mistake, Allegheny County can act on its own to order a reassessment. That it has not done so – and that it probably will not do so – is a clear dereliction of duty and an affront to sound public policy.
Word out of Harrisburg is that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and PJM Interconnection, the entity that coordinates the power grid for the commonwealth and 12 other jurisdictions, have reached an agreement to settle a federal complaint filed by the governor.
But the settlement itself very well could lead to chaos.
Shapiro bleated to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that PJM’s “capacity auction” methodology was flawed and soon would lead to massive electricity price spikes for consumers.
In the parlance of the industry these auctions are designed to ensure a reliable supply of electricity, “supplementing spot-market revenues to procure the necessary resources to meet expected future demand.”
Ah, supply and demand. It was something that Shapiro simply could not abide, especially given that he’s been a member in good standing of the proverbial Club for Decline crowd doing its darnedest to push “green” energy and kill energy produced by fossil fuels.
That was leading to a reduced electricity generation capacity. And that was leading to higher prices. It’s called basic economics.
But never mind all that. PJM now has been bullied into setting a price floor and price cap for future auctions. And what do price caps do, class? That’s right, they cause shortages.
In this case, that could mean even less electricity generated on top of the less electricity generated because of fossil-fuel generated capacity being taken offline.
And that could cripple PJM’s ability to meet grid demand, especially as load growth is spiking because of artificial intelligence demands.
As we are wont to say regarding such government machinations, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to intervene.”
Dear Pittsburgh City Council:
As you now prepare to consider the city Planning Commission’s misguided approval of a citywide inclusionary zoning proposal, please consider the words of two housing research experts – Lance Freeman, a professor of urban planning at Columbia University, and Jenny Schuetz, an urban economist working for the Federal Reserve:
“We understand the political attractiveness of inclusionary zoning programs; they don’t seem to cost any money: You require developers to build one or two affordable housing units for every 10 new apartments that they build.
“Maybe your city offers up a density bonus, or expedites permit handling, but unlike conventional public housing, the city doesn’t have to lay out any of its cash to get more new affordable housing. That’s why Evan Roberts [an assistant professor of population studies at the University of Minnesota] described it as politically understandable, though terrible, policy.
Continued Freeman and Schuetz:
“It’s the kind of solution that is congruent with a kind of morality-tale explanation of housing unaffordability: it’s the fault of greedy developers and heartless landlords, so it’s only fair to somehow dragoon them into paying for the solution.
“While showy and contentious, however, the real-world results of inclusionary zoning have been at best paltry, and the risks that inclusionary requirements will depress housing supply – and thereby drive up rents — ought to persuade policy makers to look more broadly if they are to find practical solutions to this problem.”
Is Pittsburgh City Council prepared to look more broadly and embrace practicality? Past being prologue, we’re not sure it has that capacity.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
