Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. February 28, 2023
Editorial: Pa. counties need authority to boost tourism
Even in a stridently partisan state legislature, authorizing county Tourism Improvement Districts (TIDs) should be an easy win for both parties. And the sooner the better: County tourism agencies, including Allegheny County’s VisitPittsburgh, could use the cash to sustain an ongoing recovery from the COVID travel collapse.
VisitPittsburgh reports that visitors to Allegheny County spent more than $6.5 billion in 2019, accounting for more than $400 million in state and local tax revenue. It also reports that Pittsburgh’s post-COVID tourism recovery is outpacing its rivals.
From all available evidence, including from more than 200 regions nationwide with TIDs, local governments and businesses in this area will get a solid return-on-investment from such a program. It also has the enthusiastic support of the local hotel industry.
Native Pittsburghers tend not to view southwest Pennsylvania as a compelling tourist destination: Familiarity blinds them to the region’s appeal. The city lacks a signature asset — such as Nashville’s music or Louisville’s whiskey — but it contains a variety of attractions. VisitPittsburgh reports that arts and culture, typified by the unique and world-class Warhol Museum, top the list, with sports and outdoors activities rounding out the top three.
But right now, VisitPittsburgh’s funding ranks near the bottom of comparable cities, with roughly $10 million a year. Compare that to $15 million for Ohio competitors Cleveland and Columbus, and more than $20 million for Nashville and Louisville, which just approved a TID.
A Tourism Improvement District allows a local government to assess a certain percent of gross hotel room revenues, direct from the hotels themselves, for marketing the region. In Allegheny County, a coalition of hoteliers is proposing a 2% assessment, which would raise about $9 million annually. The fund would be separate from VisitPittsburgh’s other funds. A board of hoteliers would govern the fund, which the tourism agency would manage and distribute.
To move forward, VisitPittsburgh and the local hotel industry need the state to authorize the county to set up a TID. Now, only cities in Pennsylvania can establish TIDs, giving the consolidated city-county of Philadelphia an advantage. It passed a 0.75% assessment in 2017, which so successful it was doubled upon reauthorization last year.
Last year, we were skeptical about another funding mechanism for VisitPittsburgh — a straight 2% increase in the county hotel room fee — and endorsed state Sen. Wayne Fontana’s call for an audit of the agency. VisitPittsburgh now reports that its work with the Allegheny County Auditor is nearly complete. That the agency welcomed the exam suggests it will receive a clean bill of fiscal health.
There are no good reasons for Harrisburg to deny counties the right to authorize Tourism Improvement Districts. The legislature should quickly pass enabling legislation so Pittsburgh, and other regions across the commonwealth, aren’t left behind.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. March 5, 2023
Editorial: New rules spell out obvious miss in House ethics
If Pennsylvania legislators ever wonder why they might not be seen as completely trustworthy, they need only to look to their track record of how they govern others versus how they govern themselves.
The most infamous example is always the 2005 pay increase — passed at 2 a.m. without any comment or oversight despite more than doubling paychecks.
But that is hardly the only instance.
For years, wresting information from lawmakers about their own expenses has been like pulling teeth. Even when it was provided, it often was incomplete or half-hearted. They also can avoid detailing expenses with a hefty per diem. Former lawmaker Chris Sainato of Lawrence County racked up $1.9 million in reimbursements over 19 years.
Likewise, legislators have a tendency to nod along in agreement at the suggestion of a gift ban. When it comes time to pass one, it never seems to get done. Maybe that’s because they are too busy taking trips to Wyoming with a skill game company or to Europe on the Pittsburgh Symphony’s dime.
New rules for the state House of Representatives show exactly how politicians will not just gerrymander the law for their own election and power but also gerrymander the law — drawing improbable shapes around simple ideas that ultimately protect them from consequences.
The rules were adopted Wednesday after Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, stepped down from his two-month speakership and handed the gavel to Rep. Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia. Among them was a new rule that should never have had to be spelled out.
It is now acknowledged that harassment can happen to people who don’t work for you. The language specifies that harassment is prohibited against “any individual.”
This comes after an SEIU lobbyist was unable to file ethics complaints against a lawmaker because previous rules demanded complainants be House members or employees.
This is utterly ludicrous as representatives’ work brings them into constant professional contact with, among others, senators, elected officials from other levels of government and taxpayers.
Pennsylvania has spent more than 10 years in a very public sex abuse spotlight because of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, followed by multiple grand jury reports regarding Catholic church dioceses. Changing the state constitution to better protect victims and allow them to find justice has been the work of the past five years.
And that’s without even mentioning the #MeToo movement. One of the most spectacular examples of that was the Bill Cosby case in Montgomery County.
No one in the House thought maybe cleaning up the language and closing the loopholes of their own guiding principles would be a good idea?
At least it’s done now — but not unanimously. The new rules passed along party lines, with Democrats in favor. Republicans say they aren’t strong enough.
The GOP members may have a point. There is always room for improvement, but you can’t wait for perfect when you are looking for accountability.
Uniontown Herald-Standard. March 5, 2023
Editorial: Alleviating teacher shortage should be a priority
Along with being first lady, Jill Biden is also a teacher, and she once observed, “Teaching is not a job. It’s a lifestyle. It permeates your whole life.”
And it seems to be a lifestyle fewer and fewer young people are willing to adopt.
The United States is in the midst of a teacher shortage, and in Pennsylvania the situation has been described as “dire and worsening.” There has been a 67% drop in the number of new educators who have become certified over the last decade, and in the 2020-21 school year the number of emergency permits issued to individuals to take teaching jobs exceeded the number of new teaching certifications from in-state programs.
At a hearing of the state Senate’s education committee this week, Pennsylvania State Education Association president Rich Askey said, “Never before have I been so concerned about the future of education in our commonwealth. The educator shortage is a crisis. It is not some ideological wedge issue, it is not a minor problem that we can put off to the future. It is a disaster that is staring us in the face right now.”
Also this week, the organizations Start Strong PA and Pre-K for PA released survey data that showcased the staffing crisis in child care, pre-K and Head Start programs across Pennsylvania. All told, there are 4,000 open positions, and almost all child-care providers have reported staffing shortages. This means that more than 35,000 children are parked on waiting lists to get into programs, and more than 30,000 additional children could be served if sites were fully staffed.
Certainly one reason so many teaching jobs have gone unfilled is pay. No one wants to work hard – and teaching children at any level is demanding – and find themselves having to take on a second job to make ends meet, or subsist wholly on peanut butter and noodles. Nationally, the average starting salary for teachers is a little more than $41,000, which would hardly make the profession attractive to someone who might have a mountain of student debt and hopes of eventually having enough money to purchase a home and provide for a family. The situation is even worse among providers of child care – pay averages less than $12.50 an hour, and 50% of the professionals working in the sector qualify to receive government benefits.
Raising salaries is one way to make teaching more attractive. Askey has recommended raising the minimum salary of all K-12 education professionals to $60,000 a year. The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) has asked that the Legislature and Gov. Josh Shapiro provide funding in the upcoming budget that would allow students majoring in education to get some relief on their tuition bills. Each student would save an average of $1,500 per year, and high-need students could get up to $6,500 in relief per year.
Estimates have it that 10,000 additional teachers will be needed in Pennsylvania than the number available today. Simply put, something needs to be done to draw more people to the field. Teaching may be a noble profession, but it shouldn’t come with a vow of poverty attached.
Wilkes-Barre Citizens’ Voice. March 6, 2023
Editorial: Shapiro must address fair school funding
Gov. Josh Shapiro has been in office about six weeks but, in a sense, his administration actually begins today with his first budget introduction and address to the General Assembly.
Like any budget, this one will be not just a ledger of projected revenue and spending but a detailed statement of the new administration’s policy priorities. Its introduction will begin the impending test of whether Shapiro can translate into specific action the broad themes that he emphasized during the 2022 gubernatorial campaign.
The test is as much for the Legislature as for Shapiro, in that the overarching issue in the campaign was the most basic one — whether the state government could overcome its politically induced dysfunction. Shapiro defeated extremist far right state Sen. Doug Mastriano by about 15 percentage points, which should tell lawmakers that Pennsylvanians are more interested in governance than demonstrations of ideological purity.
In his brief time in office, Shapiro has made a point of reaching across the aisle, including with the nominations of four Republican Cabinet members. He will work with a one-vote Democratic House majority and a six-vote Republican Senate majority. The budget process will begin to determine whether legislative Republicans do likewise.
It’s not yet clear what Shapiro will emphasize for his first year. He said in a radio interview Friday that his budget proposal will not include a tax increase, reflecting that the state has about $6 billion in funds generated by higher-than-projected tax revenue over the past several years and unspent federal pandemic relief funds, plus a fully funded Rainy Day Fund.
He also said he would produce an unidentified tax decrease. While campaigning, he advocated accelerating the ongoing decrease in the corporate net income tax, to as little as 4% from the current 8.99% by 2025.
Looming over the proposed budget is a recent decision by the state Commonwealth Court, which found unconstitutional the state government’s method of distributing more than $7 billion a year in education funding.
Shapiro should use this budget to begin fairly distributing that money, for the sake not only of students in less affluent districts put to reduce upward pressure on local property taxation.
Scranton Times-Tribune. March 5, 2023
Editorial: Truly new era? Zabel key test
State House Democrats used their new majority recently to adopt rules precluding inappropriate conduct by representatives regarding not only House employees, but anyone.
They have yet to speak out against a member whose alleged conduct is responsible for the rule.
A lobbyist, Andi Perez of the Service Employees International Union, recently accused Democratic Rep. Mike Zabel of Delaware County of improperly touching her during a business meeting. Since then, an as-yet-unnamed state representative and a former member of Zabel’s campaign staff have made similar allegations.
The claims point to a disturbing pattern of alleged alcohol abuse and inappropriate contact. Yet Democratic leaders who advocated the new rules have yet to call for Zabel to explain himself or resign, or both.
Republican leaders have done so. But they have little credibility due to their own record. When Republican former state Rep. Tarah Toohil, who now is a Luzerne County judge, accused fellow Republican Rep. Nick Miccarelli of Delaware County of sexual assault in 2017, Republican leaders called for his resignation. But they allowed him to remain in office through his 10th year in the Legislature, thus enabling him to fully vest in the lucrative state pension.
Politically, the issue is fraught for Democrats, who have a 102-100 advantage in the chamber that is likely to become 102-101 following an impending special election for an open seat in a heavily Republican district.
Zabel is from a Democratic-leaning district. Regardless, Democratic leaders should stand on their own principals and call for Zabel’s resignation.
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