Lance: To US Airways. Talk about chutzpah. It's pitting Pittsburgh, Phoenix and Charlotte against one another in an attempt to have one of them cough up millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for a new flight operations center. But in the middle of the bidding war, it offers $8 billion to take over Delta Air Lines. Well, boys and girls, if US Airways has $8 billion to throw around, should it get any public money? Of course not.
Laurel: To Jim Roddey. The former Allegheny County executive and member of the state transportation reform board effectively has called for the North Shore Connector project to be abandoned. It's a gutsy and necessary call to stop a boondoggle in its tracks. The premises to bring light-rail transit to the North Side were horribly flawed. And no one of any repute has had the guts to blow the whistle. Until now. Kudos, Mr. Roddey. And don't relent.
Lance: To the Pittsburgh school board. It has agreed to pay the district's top academic officer $213,000 to go bye-bye. Superintendent Mark Roosevelt placed Lynn Spampinato on paid leave a month ago. No explanation was given; she was 10 months into her three-year contract. A big payout of taxpayer dollars and no explanation? You'll need a mop to wipe your face of the spit from the arrogant raspberry just delivered. This, of course, is buncombe. Why should the public trust anything that Mr. Roosevelt and the board do from now on? It should not.
Lance: To Pittsburgh Public Schools. Even with prior commonsense reforms -- right-sizing the physical plant chief among them -- spending per pupil is expected to rise in 2007 to nearly $18,000. That's according to some numbers-crunching by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. It's an outlandish amount when compared with other large metropolitan districts, some much larger than Pittsburgh. Perhaps not paying academic officers huge windfalls for unstated reasons is a good place to start.
Laurel: To Luke Ravenstahl. We're no fans of the mayor using phantom revenues to balance the city budget (see today's second editorial). But we do like his proposal to scrap the flat $52 annual service tax in favor of a tax based on workers' incomes. No, we've not lost our marbles and now suddenly favor higher taxes. And, no, we do not favor any kind of "commuter tax"; a city has no right to conscript a premium from the workers who already fill city tax coffers. But it is the epitome of unfairness for a janitor to pay a tax at a higher rate than the corporate chieftain. We urge Mayor Ravenstahl to pursue his idea.
Shop 'til you drop: It's Light Up Night in Pittsburgh, the traditional opening of the Christmas shopping season that transforms the erstwhile City of Steel into the City of Lights. Even with all of its struggles, "the city" at Christmas can be a magical place. We wish our local merchants a profitable season. And we hope shoppers find those perfect gifts while making long-lasting memories.
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