I'm almost at a loss for words.
The grand new PNC skyscraper, the building that's going to save Pittsburgh, is the subject of a TIF (Tax Increment Financing) application.
That's right: The City of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Public Schools are going to be asked to rebate the tax revenues that the building will generate, so that PNC Bank's real estate arm, which is developing the building, can generate a profit on the project.
Is this a great country, or what?
There are moments, folks, when a flailing community needs leadership. When the people of the city, the hard-working, tax-paying, long-suffering citizens of the Steel City need someone to speak up and take a stand for them and for their future. Someone who steps up to the plate and says, um, wait, aren't we already short a bunch of millions of dollars and why, anyway, are we giving more to PNC Bank so that it can build a luxury hotel and 30 top-floor condominiums? Isn't the money supposed to flow from the building to the city?
It's a simple test of character. Bob O'Connor, we're waiting.
5 comments:
hear, hear!
Think I can just have my 60 bucks?
post-gazette editorial page endorsed this TIF in today's paper
So, is that intro line a homage to everyone's favorite cheesy film about PIT, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979), or instead of taking an entire Potemkin Village, this sky scraper is rotting from the head down?
Isn't this exactly the sort of silly stuff that the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, the city's oversight board, is supposed to stop? Of course, the state is spashing around with $30M, some friend of Fast Eddie is getting a wet and sloppy "thank you" building.
The ICA is appointed, if memory serves, by the governor and legislative leaders. Fast Eddie wants this done, it gets done.
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