Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Unsolicited Advice Series: Luke Ravenstahl

A couple of points to ponder with respect to your upcoming discussions with state legislators concerning the City of Pittsburgh's financial position:

Proposing five-figure raises for certain of your advisors seems unlikely to persuade anyone in Harrisburg that city government has become corrigible.

Your published declaration of unwillingness to consider any property tax increase puzzles some legislators, particularly those representing municipalities whose rates exceed those currently imposed in Pittsburgh.

8 comments:

James said...

I would like to see some data on local municipalities with higher property taxes than Pittsburgh. I would be willing to place a small wager that said municipalities also have a lower wage tax.

Infinonymous said...

Comparing municipal tax loads is complicated. Differing municipalities experience differing revenue opportunities, consequences of state- and federal-level decisionmaking, service levels, and the like.

The City of Pittsburgh has elected and tolerated unusually poor government for many years. It also has arranged an unsustainable mismatch between revenue levels (taxation rates) and consumption (services, deferred obligations, Network-style grifting, etc.) for many years.

Unless those circumstances change, Harrisburg seems unlikely to provide substantial assistance (or increased flexibility) to Pittsburgh.

MH said...

Philly's corruption, compared to ours, is like Superman's strength compared to Batman's after hernia surgery. We don't have the votes in Harrisburg and that's what matters.

Anonymous said...

Who in the Ravenstahl administration got the hefty wage increases?

Bram Reichbaum said...

Yeah, I'll bite, who? And Infi, just so we can get an idea of what's fair, how much would they have to pay you to work for them?

Infinonymous said...

Nothing has been paid yet -- hence the use of "proposing" to describe budgeted figures. For starters, however, the Ravenstahl administration appears to believe its management of policy has been particularly valuable.

Anonymous said...

Really? I hope its not Mazefsky, that guy can't even count to five.

Anonymous said...

Isn't he the one who used to take dumps in garbage cans during frat parties as an undergrad at Allegheny College?