The big question for the coming new Salem’s Market and Grill in Pittsburgh’s Hill District is this:
Will it be paying property taxes?
As the Post-Gazette reported Friday, the city Urban Redevelopment Authority has approved the sale of the former – and heavily taxpayer-subsidized — Shop ‘n Save and other parts of the Centre Heldman Plaza to Salem’s Market Centre Avenue LLC for $1.9 million plus costs.
The original plan designed to return a full-service grocery store to the site after four years was for Salem’s to lease the location. But it turned out that made it difficult for Salem’s to secure financing for its deal.
It is a deal, we would remind, that is replete with public aid.
The $7.2 million project is being “financed through a combination of debt, grants — including one from the state — and a $1.37 million URA loan, which is to be used to fund leasehold improvements, equipment, inventory, working capital and other expenses related to the store, a restaurant and processing operations,” the P-G reports.
And there’s a taxpayer-guaranteed $4.5 million KeyBank loan “backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration.”
But, again, will Salem’s be paying property taxes? Given the public’s financial backing otherwise, it’s the least it should do.
The big question these days for the City of Pittsburgh is:
Is it really serious about reforming the city’s land bank to make it something approaching functional?
It appears not, given that the Gainey administration and City Council have yet again slashed funding for the effort.
As the P-G reports:
“In a costly setback for housing advocates desperate to rehab crumbling city-owned properties, city leaders moved to cut half of the federal funding for Pittsburgh’s land bank — which was created to revitalize blighted neighborhoods across the city.”
The move that the council gave preliminary approval to last week cuts $3.5 million in federal stimulus money from the effort. That’s on top of a $3 million cut last year from what began as a $10 million kitty.
A P-G review this year found that “the city is the largest property owner in Pittsburgh – about 5,000 empty homes and lots — in some cases taking up nearly entire blocks.” Many are dilapidated and threaten public safety.
Clearly, the city is doubling down on the failure that the land bank has been for years. And it is public policy at its worst.
And the third question of the day is as elementary as it is rhetorical:
Can the Regional Asset District (RAD) show any more disrespect for sound business practices?
We think not.
In recognition of three Pittsburgh museums being recognized as among the best in the nation by USA Today, admissions will be free for all of August.
The lost revenue will be covered by the RAD. That is, the taxpayers that already support the Andy Warhol Museum, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and the Heinz History Center.
Well, isn’t that special.
Had the RAD and these museums had any business acumen, they would have capitalized on the national recognition, touted the same in their promotional efforts and attempted to lure more paying patrons to their operations.
But, no, that’s waaaaay too commonsensical.
Instead of using these museums’ public-perception success to reduce the draw on the taxpayer kitty, the RAD, with its monthlong August free admission scheme, only adds to it.
And that makes no public policy sense.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
