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Sticking it to Kennywood
Dimitri Vassilaros is a Tribune-Review editorial page editor. He can be reached at dvassilaros@tribweb.com or 412-380-5637. He also blogs at KDKA
The legendary amusement park is paying for the supposed privilege of doing business in the backward borough. And paying. And paying.
It is a metaphor about how government greed creates a business-unfriendly environment in much of this region.
"They doubled our tax without letting us know," said Peter J. McAneny, Kennywood Entertainment president.
The amusement tax had been 50 cents on each ride ticket. It shot up from that to 5 percent on each ticket in December 2003. The net effect was an additional $516,000 from Kennywood to local government.
To add insult to injury, the borough sent an amusement device tax bill in excess of $62,000. And then to add even more insult to injury, it did a "Pittsburgh" by raising the occupation tax from $10 to $52.
"We think that is going overboard," McAneny said about all the increases. Kennywood is the only business in West Mifflin paying the amusement tax.
West Mifflin does not care what its cash cow thinks.
"When they say we are picking on Kennywood, we are not," said Howard J. Bednar, the borough manager. There was one advertisement, placed in a McKeesport newspaper, about jacking up the amusement tax, he said.
"There has been no effort to say 'let's get Kennywood.' I take exception to that. West Mifflin did not abuse the situation."
Five percent is the maximum amusement tax rate allowed by the state. Bednar does not believe charging the max is abusive. Especially since the added money is paying for the pay raises of borough employees.
"Nobody took a pay cut," he said when asked if there were some other way of balancing the budget. "We had contracts with police and public works that we have to honor."
The multiyear contracts have annual wage increases from 3 percent to 4 percent, he said. Well, what about right-sizing the payroll? "I do not think any of our departments are overstaffed," Bednar said.
West Mifflin must be the most efficient municipality in Pennsylvania.
Maybe in America.
So what happens when more than a half-million dollars is transferred from private enterprise to the government? Other than making borough employees very happy, that is.
Kennywood will continue the multimillion-dollar upgrade of its entrance.
However, losing that money (roughly the cost of the Aero 360 with those two big arms that look like Kennywood signs) means fewer new attractions.
It also means the seasonal temporary workers, many of them kids from West Mifflin, will have a large chunk of their first paycheck gobbled up by the borough.
And do not be surprised if someday you notice fewer amusement devices in the arcades at the park. Video games such as the Daytona 500 or that crane game with the big claw used to pick up prizes could become cost-prohibitive because of the tax, although McAneny did not indicate if any would be removed this summer.
One solution would be to move Kennywood, currently on 95 acres, to a much more desirable location, such as near an exit by an interstate or the Pennsylvania Turnpike. But McAneny wants to stay put.
As for West Mifflin not appearing to be business-friendly, Bednar said, "I do not think this will drive business away, but if you were going to open an amusement park, you would not think it was a friendly atmosphere."
