Colin McNickle At Large

Subsidized cargo, film credits & a broken promise

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Things are not going well for Pittsburgh International Airport’s heavily publicly subsidized Qatar Airways cargo service.

In fact, if tonnage numbers continue to lag – as they have since service began last October – the Allegheny County Airport Authority could be on the hook for nearly $1.5 million in “incentives,” the Tribune-Review reported this week.

Just as troubling is the Trib’s reminder that the authority is paying Qatar $15,500 per flight, no matter how much cargo is carried. “For the second six months, the authority will continue to pay the airline $15,500 per flight if it’s not meeting the goal” of 60 tons of cargo per round-trip flight. “If the airline does meet the goal, a lower incentive amount will be negotiated.”

Feel better? You shouldn’t. The public – and the airport authority is a public authority – has absolutely no business subsidizing service. But that has become the norm at the Findlay Township facility.

This is billed as “progress.” But here’s how “progress” works: A company studies the profit-potential of a service. If it finds one, it risks its own money to start that service. If its market analysis was correct, that risk pays off with profits.

What’s even more incredibly troubling about this deal is that it wasn’t until this month – the third full month of cargo operations – that Qatar hired a salesperson to market the service, the Trib also reports.

One would think that Qatar would be busting its hump to drum up service from the get-go. Then again, why bother if the public is underwriting your start-up costs in a sweetheart deal?

West Virginians have decided to stop propping up “progressive” math.

As The Associated Press reports, Gov. Jim Justice has signed legislation ending the Mountain State’s film tax credit program. And the reason is fundamental.

More than $15 million in credits were issued over the program’s 10 years. But the economic value was determined to be only $6.1 million.

That is, the state spent $15 million for a $6.1 million return.

Pennsylvania legislators should consider a like move, given how the Keystone State’s film tax credits appear to have become trading currency for large and decidedly non-film related entities to cut their tax bills.

All together now – Ahem.

Why does everyone seem to keep ignoring the elephant in the room regarding the Pittsburgh Promise?

Officials of the college scholarship program of Pittsburgh Public Schools announced this week that, for the second time in three years, it is slashing its top annual award.

That figure went from $10,000 annually to $7,500 in 2015. Now it’s going from $7,500 a year to $5,000. The change was required to make the program more sustainable, officials said. Those “promised” larger scholarships, of course, feel snookered.

But the major problem with this “scholarship” remains its hardly rigorous criteria to be awarded the money – namely a quite pedestrian grade point average of 2.5 (a C) and a 90-percent attendance rate.

Why should pedestrian grades be rewarded and disserve the notion of “scholarship”? Why should those who miss 10 percent of their class days be similarly honored? Furthermore, how many of these “scholars” require remedial work at the community college level? The stories are as legion as they are disturbing.

Tightening standards would go a very long way in saving valuable dollars that should be reserved for real “scholars,” not the watered-down, feel-good version that has become so endemic in Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Colin McNickle is a senior fellow and media specialist at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).

 

 

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Colin McNickle
Colin McNickle

Colin received his B.G.S. from Ohio University. The 40-year journalism veteran joined the Institute in October 2016. That followed a 22-year career with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 18 as director of editorial pages for Trib Total Media. Prior that, Colin had a long and varied career in media — from radio, newspapers and magazines, to United Press International and The Associated Press.

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