The best option for funding transit

The head of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development writes in today's P-G about the proposed drink tax and rental car tax to raise money to support the Port Authority. The ACCD is a private-sector organization to "provide civic leadership to execute a focused agenda for regional improvement," according to their site.

They support the taxes along with the Chamber of Commerce, but the restaurant and bar owners are strongly against it. No word from the rental car industry, I guess because about 6 flights a day come into Pittsburgh Airport now. The restaurant and bar owners have changed their tune, orginally they just said "oppose the tax" without saying what it was for. I imagine some asked them "What, are you against transit? How the hell do people get to your bar one the South Side unless they can get one of the coveted 13 spaces?" So now they say the tax raise won't be used for transit but just for other county operations, which is meant to raise images of Dan Onorato jumping into a money pool like Scrooge McDuck.

The real deal is that the state is offering the county dedicated funding for transit. The caveat: the county must match it. Onorato needs to raise the money or else the Port Authority is back to having to consider even bigger cuts. Options? Property tax or these taxes. Property tax increases will not fly and will violate his largest promise in elections. So I commend Onorato for trying to find the money elsewhere and pledging to not give a dime until Port Authority lowers labor costs. He's now gone to the table to help negotiate concessions, which helps.

As always, a great City Paper article about the mess, including Save Our Transit's call for boycott of establishments who oppose the tax.