Colin McNickle Columns category, Page 2
Colin McNickle: Behind Pa.’s 2023 gambling numbers
Pennsylvania’s gambling revenues reached nearly $5.7 billion by the end of 2023. It’s the highest yearly total to date, up 9.3% from 2022. And taxes on that gambling brought in $2.3 billion in 2023, up 10% from $2.12 billion in 2022. But a researcher at the Allegheny Institute for Public...
Colin McNickle: PRT not worthy of proposed funding increase
Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) would be in line for millions of new dollars in state funding in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed fiscal 2024-25 budget, about $40 million by one estimate. But a scholar at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy questions if such an increase is prudent. “This is the...
Colin McNickle: The manifest danger in Shapiro’s budget
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed spending tens of millions of dollars in commonwealth reserves during this year’s budget address. He wants to disburse the dollars to bolster spending on everything from economic development efforts, to public transit and public education, the courts forcing his hand on the latter. Shapiro has...
Colin McNickle: Westmoreland must conduct property reassessment
We often have opined about the deleterious effects of no regular property reassessments in Allegheny County for more than a decade. “Fairness” has become but a quaint notion. And the nose-thumbing to the state Constitution’s uniform taxation clause has been a breathtaking embarrassment. But in neighboring Westmoreland County, where there...
Colin McNickle: Opportunity in ‘jock tax’ demise
There’s a counterintuitive question for Pittsburgh officials in the aftermath of a second straight court ruling that struck as unconstitutional the city’s “jock tax,” says Eric Montarti, research director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy: Sans a successful state Supreme Court appeal, where will the city — instead of...
Colin McNickle: A textbook case for regular property reassessments
The dominos of government nonfeasance have begun to fall in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. And the economic fallout could be catastrophic, says a researcher at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “This situation underscores the importance of regular property assessments,” says Frank Gamrat, executive director of the Pittsburgh think tank....
Colin McNickle: Better ways for Pittsburgh to cull tax-exempt properties
A City of Pittsburgh effort to return properties to the tax rolls by challenging their tax-exempt status is paying dividends. But the research director of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy says there are better, alternative actions that would bolster the city’s coffers even further. “Government-owned properties are included in...
Colin McNickle: Pittsburgh Public Schools must confront budget realities
Difficult decisions await Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) in 2024, says the research director of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “PPS is again in a critical situation of its own making,” Eric Montarti says. “Keeping the commonwealth and the school district taxpayers in mind, the PPS board needs to begin...
Colin McNickle: The (still) high cost of PRT bus service
The cost to operate Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) buses oftentimes exceeds seven other comparison transit agencies in the United States, except New York City, concludes a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. But in one key metric, and when the cost of living in the respective comparison...
Colin McNickle: 4 must-dos for next Allegheny County executive
Allegheny County voters go to the polls on Tuesday to choose the first new chief executive (ACE) in 12 years. Over the past year, the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy has made four key recommendations that the incoming ACE must entertain. In 2024, the county government will use the budget...
Colin McNickle: Weak jobs & PIT numbers go hand in hand
Despite glowing reports touting increased international passenger counts (even though they remain a shadow of past performance), overall passenger numbers at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) remain weak. And weak local jobs numbers appear to be playing a role in that deficit, new research from the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy...
Colin McNickle: Reassessment key to fixing property tax inequities
Once again, the great hue and cry in quarters both government and political has become that conducting a property reassessment in Allegheny County would be an immorality bordering on a public policy atrocity that would only serve to gouge taxpayers and even retard economic growth. But the reality is quite...
Colin McNickle: The Right-to-Work difference in jobs recovery
Private-sector employment in Pennsylvania climbed 2.3% above the pre-pandemic July 2019 level by July 2023. But a researcher at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy says the commonwealth’s fealty to organized labor is retarding job growth. “The gain was accounted for by … service-sector jobs, especially education and health, professional...
Colin McNickle: Pa. must start living within its means
The influx of pandemic-spawned federal stimulus money boosted Pennsylvania general fund revenues in fiscal 2021 and 2022. But it also led to even more government spending, reminds a researcher at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. And that’s likely not sustainable. “(T)he state will not be receiving any more pandemic...
Colin McNickle: Next county executive should push benchmarking study
Allegheny County voters will elect a new chief executive in November. Whomever is chosen, researchers at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy say the executive should advocate for benchmarking the county’s performance against those nationwide. “Establishing and maintaining a benchmark peer group of counties should be a priority of the...
Colin McNickle: The trouble behind PIT’s passenger numbers
The Allegheny County Airport Authority is constructing a new $1.4 billion check-in, ticketing and security terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT). It is, ostensibly, part of a bid to boost long-flagging passenger numbers at the Findlay Township facility. And while the price tag for the new terminal is almost certain...
Colin McNickle: How the next Allegheny County executive can start fixing PRT
Change is in the air with the coming election of a new Allegheny County chief executive in November. And once the new leader takes office in January, he or she can help ensure that change is the operative word to begin fixing the long-out-of-step Pittsburgh Regional Transit, researchers at the...
Colin McNickle: Benefits, challenges in accelerated CNIT cuts
Legislation introduced in the Pennsylvania Senate that would increase the rate of reduction for the onerous corporate net income tax (CNIT) has the potential to provide a triple benefit for the commonwealth, concludes a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. It could boost the economy with new...
Colin McNickle: The wrong kind of ‘growth’ for Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh’s office vacancy rate grew worse in the first quarter of 2023. And it likely will continue to do so for years, finds a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “It doesn’t appear the upward trend is going to change anytime soon,” concludes Frank Gamrat, executive director...
Colin McNickle: Allegheny County does not have Pa.’s worst air quality
Allegheny County yet again has been maligned for its allegedly dangerous air quality. But this time around, it’s not from the usual suspect, that being the American Lung Association (ALA) and years of misrepresenting local air quality. No, this time it’s the University of Wisconsin, which recently claimed that Allegheny...
Colin McNickle: Reduce costs before adding new mass-transit taxes
Proposed legislation now before the House Transportation Committee in Harrisburg would enable specific counties to enact new taxes, surtaxes and fees to subsidize mass transit and fund transportation infrastructure. But a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy says that as far as Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) is...
Colin McNickle: PIT’s misleading stats, rose-colored glasses
The Allegheny County Airport Authority used a misleading comparison to make it appear that passenger and operations numbers at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) have improved more than they have, concludes a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. As it happens, the PIT decline in passengers from February...
Colin McNickle: 3 proposals to fix Pa. school funding mess
Now that the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has ruled the Keystone State’s school funding model does not meet the state constitutional standard of equity in education, the obvious question is “What’s next?” Sans a state Supreme Court reversal, “If the Legislature wants to focus on reducing the wide disparities in per...
Colin McNickle: Pittsburgh’s still stubbornly high office vacancy rates
Pittsburgh’s top-notch Downtown office vacancy rate remained stubbornly high at the end of 2022. And there are serious questions whether it will see much in the way of recovery in 2023. But one possible fix for the shortfall — a deficit pre-dating the coronavirus pandemic and further exacerbated by it...
Colin McNickle: Evergreen issues in the coming Allegheny County executive race
The race is on for Allegheny County chief executive (ACE). And a number of evergreen public policy issues — some would argue nagging — should dominate the coming debate, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “(W)hile aspects of those issues may have changed, over all there...
