Pennsylvania taxpayers will subsidize Wow Air’s service to Pittsburgh International Airport to the tune of $800,000 over the next two years. Wow. And good grief.
The money will come from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. And, in “return,” we are told, Greater Pittsburgh will gain access to another “low fare carrier” that will only enhance Pittsburgh International Airport’s “international” reputation.
“This is money that we will give to the airline in exchange for two years of scheduled service,” said Christina Cassotis, CEO of the Allegheny County Airport Authority.
Which more than suggests there is no market for these flights, does it not?
Why should taxpayers at large underwrite the discounted cost for the select few?
Cassotis tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the public subsidy is an “investment that will pay off.” But that’s not the way markets are supposed to work.
Here’s how they are supposed to work: A company sees a profit potential in a respective market. It risks its own capital to develop that market. If it made the right bet, it profits. If not, it loses money and, ultimately, moves on to other markets to again risk its resources in pursuit of profit.
The Wow Air deal transfers the risk to taxpayers, turning them into venture capitalists, which is not their role. Pure and simple, this is corporate wealthfare.
“This is huge,” Cassotis told the PG. “Year-round transatlantic service is what we’ve been trying for since I got here. And within two years we got the announcement. And I promise it’s just the beginning.”
More’s the pity.
The Brookings Institution’s Matthew M. Chingos says “The question facing policymakers and the public is not whether eliminating tuition at public colleges for most families will have a positive effect, but whether it is the best use of a large new federal investment in higher education.”
To the first point, public colleges, which long have raised tuition costs far above the inflation rate, now will have (more) government cover to jack up rates even further.
To the second point, no. “Free” college will cheapen college. If a commodity is “free,” it has no value.
And as some have noted, “free college,” a la the German model, often means stripped-down instruction. As Samuel Goldman, an assistant professor of political science, noted last winter in The American Conservative, “It’s one thing to hope for a free lunch. It’s another to expect to be served the whole menu.”
SEPTA and striking unionized Philadelphia transit workers reached a tentative contract late Sunday and returned to work Monday. No details will be released until the rank and file ratify it.
And therein lies the problem: The public — the people who pay for these things — are kept out of the loop until contracts are signed, sealed and delivered.
All tentative contracts with public sector unions should be made public before they are adopted. And that includes public school teacher contracts. Anything less fails the kind of transparency that good public policy demands.
Colin McNickle is a senior fellow and media specialist at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
