Jury Still Out On City Bail Out

Not sure yet what to think of the city bail out package passed recently by the Pennsylvania state legislature. Not convinced that the current slate of city leadership will do the right thing and spend the money on "quality of life" issues like cleaning grafitti, tearing down abandoned properties that have become a target of vandals, drug users, and others near-do-wells.

The economic hodgepodge is a little too sophisticated to wrap my State College-Liberal Arts degree mind around; my last math class...which largely focused on successfully balancing a check book...was almost 20 years ago. I'll listen to the "bigger brains" like that of the uber-brilliant Jerry Bowyer, to provide the nuts and bolts.

There's no doubt that other streams of funding were needed...the $52 occupation tax is something that ANY municipality in the Commonwealth (even my native Portage) can now charge. So Pittsburgh shouldn't lose many jobs because of that fee.

There are others, however, that look ominous. And the parking tax, which was bolstered to staggering heights just earlier this year, won't be lowered until 2007. If then. When was the last time a meaningful tax was lowered or later rejected by tax-hungry Dems and GOPers alike?

Some city lawmakers don't think there's enough new taxes. I'll never think that they'll spend any tax money wisely. They haven't done so yet.