Pennsylvania: Allegheny Institute For Public Policy

November 5, 2009 - 06:25 am

Another Day, Another Jerk In The Circle

From one of today's editorials at the Tribune Review:

It's bad enough that striking Philadelphia transit workers rejected what Gov. Ed Rendell called a "sensational" deal. What's really horrific is that the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority offered such a deal in the first place.

Transport Workers Union Local 234 -- average member salary, $52,000 -- turned down a contract that included cumulative raises in excess of 11.5 percent over the next five years, a boost in pension payments and static worker contributions to health insurance.

In these times? That's daft. See what acquiescence to organized labor in the last contract got fare-paying Philadelphians and Pennsylvania taxpayers?

The Allegheny Institute for Public Policy reminds that such machinations could be permanently dispatched by leaving "the small minority of states that allow transit workers to strike.

November 3, 2009 - 06:42 am

Tribune Review. Again

From today's "Tuesday Takes" we find:
The Allegheny Institute's Jake Haulk reminds that because Pittsburgh largely was bypassed by the national employment growth of the last decade, it did not have the private-sector housing and commercial building booms that went bust in other parts of the country. "But that does not mean the city should try to avoid strong growth in the future," he says.

Mr. Haulk cautions, however, that continuing problems with the city school district and basic city governance issues -- along with an "uninviting business climate" -- mean only "anemic" economic gains are on the horizon. Bottom line: Mediocrity does not a renaissance make.