Posted on 09/21/2010 6:01:01 AM PDT by RS_Rider
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has no Plan B to solve Pittsburgh's financial problem if City Council rejects the idea of leasing public parking assets.
Rejection would be council's "equivalent of endorsing $30 million in cuts" in the budget Ravenstahl submits this week, he said yesterday. With three months for city leaders to act before a state takeover of the pension system, Pittsburghers should know the city faces a crisis that would worsen with inaction and could mean tax increases.
"It's our biggest issue," Ravenstahl said. "It becomes difficult because when you talk to the person on the street, they want to talk about police, fire, street paving, snow plowing, swimming pools -- all the services they think they deserve, and they do -- and I know what our financial situation is, and how threatened all those services are because of our budget situation.
"It's a reality that, for far too long, people have pushed it off and not dealt with it because it's politically difficult to do so."
About $80 million of the city's $430 million budget pays down debt, the mayor's office said.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
Where parking isn't free, things are not so great.
Yep, wasn't swimming pools the first thing discussed in the Bill of Rights?
“Free Parking made America great.”
Exactly, you can basically go 2 miles in any direction of downtown Pittsburgh and park for free. It costs about $15/day in a garage and .25 cents / 7.5 minutes at a meter and these thieves can’t make a profit.
The only free parking in Pittsburgh happens to be government owned lots. Every other lot downtown is privately owned as a business and costs money already. Parking in Pittsburgh can range from $5 an hour to $50 a day depending on the spot.
The problem with going 2 miles either direction is that you can’t get back to where you were without a bus or taking the T because of the topography of the city. Several bridges can’t be crossed on foot or bike, as well as the tunnels.
Snow Plowing and Street Paving were right up there too, huh?
One possible plan B: Get a new mayor who some ideas on how to shrink a government.
I don’t understand why citizens of all large cities don’t call for a full audit of the City governments. As in Bell CA. I would bet you could find all kinds of backroom BS.
When Brown (a Clinton Admin minion) was Mayor of Houston, just before his 2 terms and out he gave his cronies raises.
The way the pensions worked was that pension payment was based on last month of salary.
Guess what, when Brown left over 300 people retired.
Got the higher pension payment.
The level of corruption in U.S cities has to be high.
who = with. Must finish coffee before posting.
A few years back the City sold the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority to shore up the underfunded pension. Now they are selling the parking lots... they are not going to have anything left to sell to prop up the bloated union pension fund.
The problem is that these lefties don’t understand business. They see raising taxes as a way to line the coffers and don’t realize that when they raise taxes, businesses leave town and jobs go with them. If you want to see what Pittsburgh will be in 20 years, just look a couple miles to the east at Wilkinsburg.
The dem machine has owned Pittsburgh, hell Southwest PA for decades. THey created this mess and blame it on everyone else. This town is dying and they don’t see why.
The trick is not to work, shop or go downtown.
Works for me.
That has already happened. I think that Pittsburgh has the highest parking rate in the nation. There is no logical reason to open a business downtown, the majority of people downtown work for the government or in the courts.
My local Peoples' Republic has been eliminating all the (hidden/remote) free places to park downtown that I've used over the last few decades. Now I don't voluntarily go downtown at all.
I am on principle opposed to any plan that gives our politicians a large sum of cash. Especially when that involves the conversion of annual revenue generators into lump sum payments.
Exactly, it only provides a partial solution for the current administration. Not only are they cashing in on the golden goose, they are doing nothing to remedy the situation that wound them into the fix they are in. Just like the turnpike.
This is just completely false. There are many very large businesses that have nothing to do with the government downtown.
But, as you said earlier, you never go downtown, so how would you know who lives or works there?
For many years the federal government was the largest employer downtown, they have been overtaken by UPMC and UPMC is not far removed from the government. For the most part USS, PPG, Alcoa, Westinghouse and others only maintain executive presence downtown.
LAZ Parking of Hartford offered the city $451.7 million to operate 12 Downtown garages and 9,000 metered parking spaces for 50 years. The company and New York-based investment firm J.P. Morgan would team to become Pittsburgh Parking Partners if the city Parking Authority and council approve the deal.
A 50-YEAR LEASE???
Oh good grief, that's the same long term "privatization" scam that they try to pull on our public highways.
Those financial scumbags (Like JP Morgan) just can't wait to grab long term monopolistic control of public assets...
Sheeeeeesh..... any politician signing a 50-year lease of public assets oughta be tarred, feathered, crucified, strung up on the gallows, and dump their carcass in the river after the buzzards are done feeding on it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.