Colin McNickle Columns category, Page 4
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...
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,...
