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Colin McNickle Columns category, Page 4

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
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...
Colin McNickle: A deeper dive into PIT’s latest passenger numbers
Popular media would have you believe that all is hunky-dory at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT). After all, passenger counts generally were up, and PIT’s cargo operations were surging, based on November numbers, the latest available from the federal government. “On the rise,” a newspaper headline veritably shouted the update, missing...
Colin McNickle: Advice for Pittsburgh’s new mayor
Ed Gainey becomes Pittsburgh’s 57th mayor next month. And as per the Alle­gheny Institute’s long-running custom, it has compiled a list of recommendations for the incoming city leader and, by extension, Pittsburgh City Council. “While the city has exited distressed status and oversight, addressed its underfunded pension plans by using...
Colin McNickle: Allegheny County demolition fee observations
Word that 100 blighted structures in Allegheny County will be demolished certainly is good news for the jurisdictions in which those properties are. But it also raises a critical question, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “Once the structures are demolished, what happens?” asks Eric Montarti,...
Colin McNickle: PASSHE must do more to reform itself
Even though efforts have begun in earnest to right-size the struggling Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), enrollment continues to decline. And even more fundamental reforms must be undertaken for it to survive, concludes a new analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “The time has come to...
Colin McNickle: Attendance matters in academic performance
Attendance matters. And a new crunching of the data comparing attendance in Pittsburgh Public Schools and others across Pennsylvania by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy yet again confirms the axiom that attendance is closely correlated to academic performance. “That is not to say that high absenteeism is the only...
Colin McNickle: Chimera of ‘progress’ at PPS’ weakest-performing schools
Just-departed Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) Superintendent Anthony Hamlet promised “good things” when he was hired as head of the outlandishly expensive and academically struggling city school district in 2016. You might recall the prose from the 2017-22 strategic plan in which problems such as a falling graduation rate and declining...
Colin McNickle: Questioning Pittsburgh’s ARP spending
The City of Pittsburgh has finalized how it will spend more than $335 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) money. But serious questions abound, says a scholar at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “With the resolutions approved and a reporting system established, there are public policy questions that remain...
Colin McNickle: The PIT problem
Past likely being prologue for Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT), a billion-dollar-plus reconfiguration of the Findlay Township facility’s landside terminal could be a very expensive failure, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “Given recent history, and travel that has been negatively affected by the pandemic,...
Colin McNickle: Pay your own way, USGA
Neither a financial nor moral (and certainly not a “good-government”) case can be made for using taxpayer dollars to subsidize the uber-rich sport of professional golf at the Oakmont Country Club, says a senior scholar at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “In sum … there is no reasonable case...
Colin McNickle: Pittsburgh’s static high office vacancy rate
Pittsburgh’s central business district office vacancy rate remained stubbornly high in 2021’s second quarter. And trends — those eminently controllable by public officials and those totally out of their control — are not encouraging for improvement, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. The wild card of...
Colin McNickle: A cautionary tale as Pa.’s tax collections rebound
It might be tempting to pronounce Pennsylvania’s economy as “recovered” as revenues rush into state tax coffers with the many effects of the coronavirus pandemic waning. Tempting, but not necessarily wise, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. For the impetus for “recovery” has been, in no...
Colin McNickle: Right-to-Work and the post-pandemic jobs recovery
Recently released May 2021 employment data for Greater Pittsburgh show a significant jump from the covid-depressed May 2020 level. But an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy suggests the numbers could have been even better had Pennsylvania been a Right-to-Work (RTW) state. “It is, in large part, a...
Colin McNickle: Port Authority must reorder its disorderly fiscal house
The Port Authority of Allegheny County could find itself between a rock and hard place given its rising budget, higher employee count, still-flagging ridership but higher fares and uncertain future funding, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “(T)the egregiously high costs at (the Port Authority) …...
Colin McNickle: Questions and pitfalls on emergency public school funding
Billions of dollars in coronavirus pandemic relief money will have flowed into Pennsylvania public schools’ coffers when it’s all said and done with. But a scholar at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy says plenty of questions remain and pitfalls loom large for taxpayers going forward. “(I)t is easy to...
Colin McNickle: Gambling revenue rebounds — but at what cost?
State-sanctioned gambling appears to be on the rebound and, in fact, growing in Pennsylvania as the coronavirus pandemic wanes and life in the Keystone State returns to some semblance of normal. But that has prompted the revival of an important and evergreen question from a researcher at the Allegheny Institute...
Colin McNickle: The right-to-work difference in pandemic jobs recovery
Right-to-work (RTW) states so far have experienced a better jobs recovery than non-right-to-work (NRTW) states as the coronavirus pandemic fades, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. But a move by the federal government to effectively kill right-to-work laws “would be a disaster for the nation’s economic...
Colin McNickle: Pittsburgh’s office vacancy trend discouraging
The trend is not good for the prime office vacancy rate in Pittsburgh’s central business district (CBD). And it is difficult to see things changing, given the marketplace and government policies, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “Unfortunately, if the past is prologue, there appears to...
Colin McNickle: The trouble with Pittsburgh International Airport
Despite repeated efforts to generate higher passenger counts at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) through subsidies to both domestic and international flights, the airport has lagged well behind the average passenger increases at the nation’s top 50 airports, concludes an analysis by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. “Between 2009 and...
Colin McNickle: Pratfalls and pitfalls for Pa. jobs recovery
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to loosen its grip on Pennsylvania, the state’s economy appears to be strengthening. But an analysis by scholars at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy shows the rebound has been lackluster, and prospective government policies could retard it further. “Indeed, the latest statewide employment report...


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