Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey has signed an executive order directing the city to re-evaluate the charitable status of sections of the city’s behemoth nonprofits.
It goes back to the long-running argument that the likes of UPMC, AHN, Pitt, et. al and etc., do not pay their proverbial “fair share” in taxes. More than a third of all property in Pittsburgh proper is not on the tax rolls because of nonprofit designations. Millions of dollars could be on the table.
In the past, there has been city-instigated court action that went nowhere. But in the early 2000s, there was a review of smaller organizations that had declared nonprofit status which found a number of them, and/or parts of them, did not qualify and were returned to the tax rolls.
But here’s the kicker:
City Solicitor Krysia Kubiak tells the Post-Gazette that no such comprehensive review of tax-exempt properties has ever been conducted in the city before.
“This review should be done because it really is what a good government does in order to make sure that we’re getting the revenue we expect,” she said.
Indeed, it should be. But, it also should be done on an annual basis, right across the board, from the smallest nonprofits to the largest.
William “Willy” McKain, the long-time Allegheny County manager, has accepted a new job. But we have serious concerns about his new employer.
On Feb. 6, McKain becomes chief operating officer at the Allegheny Conference on Community Development. As the P-G reports it, he will oversee internal operations and day-to-day management of the work plan of the private-sector leadership organization.
County manager since 2012, McKain previously worked for, among other entities, the municipality of Mt. Lebanon and the Baldwin-Whitehall School District. He is a certified public accountant.
But here’s our primary concern: He’s taking the nuts-and-bolts helm of an organization with, in the modern era, a very shoddy reputation and prone to gross political manipulation.
You might recall it was just a little over four years ago that an Allegheny County judge ruled that Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and Allegheny Conference officials essentially colluded to establish a shell organization – PGHQ2 — in an attempt to circumvent the commonwealth’s Right-To-Know Law in order to hide what turned out to be a billion dollar-plus bid to lure a second Amazon headquarters to Pittsburgh.
Worse – as if anything could be worse — the city and county then improperly sent a private letter to the judge, after the deadline had passed for legal briefs in the matter to be filed, seeking redactions from its 300-page Amazon bid should he rule against the colluders.
The judge, of course, rejected such underhanded skulduggery.
We wish Willy McKain the best in his new role. And, just perhaps, in that role he can help to make sure nothing like that ever happens again.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
