Colin McNickle stories, Page 4
Colin McNickle: How to grow PIT’s BA flights? First grow the economy.
A contingent of Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) officials, along with local business and community leaders, is in London this week hoping to convince British Airways (BA) to expand its four-day-a-week service to seven days. But as a fresh analysis of pertinent data by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy concludes,...
Colin McNickle: PRT must economize or see funding cut
Should Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) not soon make serious cost-containment efforts, state legislators who hold the purse strings should consider pulling those strings tighter to force the issue, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “The renamed PRT must focus intently on the factors it can control...
Colin McNickle: Pittsburgh’s government-induced economic funk
Private employment in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) had still not returned to pre-pandemic levels in July, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). And that remains a dysfunction of the same old — and same wrong — calcified government practices, concludes an analysis by the...
Colin McNickle: Cutting Pa.’s Corporate Net Income Tax a good start
News that Pennsylvania’s onerous Corporate Net Income Tax (CNIT) will be cut by five percentage points over the next nine years is welcome and long overdue. But the questions writ large are whether the commonwealth can sustain the phasedown, from 9.99% to 4.99%, reduce other business taxes, and enact legislation...
Colin McNickle: The cause of ‘The Pittsburgh Pause’
You’ll recall that some observers in Pittsburgh pooh-poohed the prospective sale of two hallmark commercial properties owned by a North Carolina company as being any harbinger of poorer things to come for the city’s office occupancy fortunes. But a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy posits that...
Colin McNickle: PIT’s post-pandemic passenger recovery falters
One thing is clear: Passenger traffic at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), which had been rebounding as the covid-19 pandemic subsided, faltered in June. But another thing is quite unclear — the reason for that slippage, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “PIT is struggling to get...
Colin McNickle: State, counties lack will to restore assessments fairness
The General Assembly’s steadfast refusal to mandate that every Pennsylvania county conduct regular property reassessments for tax purposes is patently unconstitutional, reiterates a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “The Pennsylvania Legislature has known of the property tax problem for a long time,” says Jake Haulk, president-emeritus...
Colin McNickle: Gaming is robust in Pa. — but issues lie in wait
Gaming in Pennsylvania continues to be strong. But there remain cautionary examples of how existing robust state income from gambling might not end up as the be-all and end-all that some portray it down the road, warns a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “(K)eep in mind...
Colin McNickle: Pa.’s private jobs conundrum
Pennsylvania’s private employment and labor force are trailing national gains and lagging far behind the fast-growth states as the economic recovery from the covid-19 pandemic continues, finds a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. And one of the root causes is the state’s latest exercise in its...
Colin McNickle: The school ‘rescue’ dollars boomerang
A third round of government school “emergency relief/rescue” dollars is wending its way to school districts in Pennsylvania and nationwide. Whether it is the final round of funding related to issues wrought by the covid-19 pandemic remains to be seen. But there are critically important questions that still envelop such...
Colin McNickle: Hurdles abound for PIT passenger growth
Myriad challenges must be overcome if there is to be anything approaching significant passenger traffic growth at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. And it’s all because some prior endemic issues are colliding with newer ones in very turbulent times, says Jake...
Colin McNickle: The high cost of light rail in Pittsburgh
The Port Authority of Allegheny County’s light-rail per vehicle revenue hour costs were near the top nationally while the rail system’s share of total mass-transit trips was near the bottom of respective systems’ nationwide, concludes an analysis of pre-pandemic 2019 transit data by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. And...
Colin McNickle: What Pittsburgh’s population malaise portends
The population malaise in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) has been well-documented for decades. Yet, iteration after iteration of political leaders and their acolytes have tried to “solve” the problem with political scheme after political scheme. “In short, absent a shift to a much friendlier business climate, less labor...
Colin McNickle: The jobs, Right-to-Work & public-sector union nexus
Recently released March 2022 private-sector employment data show the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) has failed to recover to the pre-pandemic level of March 2019. And new research by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy shows that Right-to-Work MSAs have performed better than Non-Right-to-Work MSAs, those that compel workers...
Colin McNickle: Serious public education questions in Pa.
New research from the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy documents how poor PSSA scores presage poor Keystone Exam scores in Pennsylvania. But it also prompts two critical questions: Do such achievement test results point to a massive failure of the commonwealth’s educational establishment and/or are the tests too difficult and...
Colin McNickle: The North Shore Connector at 10
Ten years after the Port Authority of Allegheny County’s North Shore Connector began operations, the mass-transit agency likely will tout the light-rail extension under the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh to the near North Shore as a “success.” After all, and according to official federal accounting, it’s moving thousands of...
Colin McNickle: Keystone Exams an abject failure
The concept of achieving proficiency on Keystone Exams as a high school graduation requirement has been a very costly failure in Pennsylvania, concludes a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “Implementation has been continuously postponed while more and more complicated and expensive-to-administer alternatives have been enacted into...
Colin McNickle: Kill the ‘presence’ tax and economize Pittsburgh’s finances
Everything old suddenly appeared to be new again recently with a Pittsburgh City Council proposal to tax consumers of higher education and medical services. But although that measure now appears to be moot, the situation represents a golden opportunity for state legislators to amend the law that allows for such...
Colin McNickle: Challenges ahead for Pittsburgh International
As if the challenges wrought by weak population and anemic economic growth and the coronavirus pandemic have not been enough for Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), now comes the reality of inflation and the specter of international hostilities. “The war in Ukraine and its impact on fuel costs and the economy...
Colin McNickle: Drastic changes key to better Pittsburgh job growth
The evidence is clear that right-to-work metropolitan areas out-performed non-right-to-work areas for private-sector jobs as they began to recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in 2021, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. And Greater Pittsburgh remains a poster child for the malaise that results...
Colin McNickle: A fee too far for Allegheny County hotels
Allegheny County’s 7% hotel room rental tax collections, ravaged by the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, began to bounce back in 2021, county data show. But a proposal to add a new fee on top of that tax is shortsighted, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “Given that...
Colin McNickle: Pittsburgh’s office vacancy rate continues to struggle
Languishing. That’s the best word to describe Pittsburgh’s continuing high vacancy rate for office space in its central business district (CBD), concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “The data for 2021’s fourth quarter shows scant improvement in the city’s office market as the pandemic continues its...
Colin McNickle: Are Pittsburgh’s pension changes prudent?
The City of Pittsburgh has revised its employee pension program. But whether the moves were prudent remains an open question, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. It was in December that outgoing Mayor Bill Peduto signed ordinances that eliminated a pension reduction for some city employees,...
Colin McNickle: Christina Cassotis’ big payday
It has become an annual rite of critical review: Questioning the repeated, dubious and massive annual pay raises and bonuses for Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis. This year is no exception. Earlier this month, the Airport Authority’s board of directors yet again did what it does worst —...
Colin McNickle: Insane inaction on Pa. transportation mess
The tale has been oft told of an intellectually bereft Pennsylvania Legislature forcing the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to go into deep debt to help fund mass transit in this commonwealth. The result has been year-after-year toll increases to cover that debt. And though the annual obligation has been slashed as...
