economic development - making money rather than fighting over it

We the people of Allegheny County are facing a quality of life crisis. The proposed transit cuts will affect everyone. Those who are transit dependent will have to make hard and expensive go or no decisions about everyday life. The drivers will suffer increased travel time and greater fuel costs due to traffic congestion. The cutbacks will put thousands more cars on the roads due to the loss of an estimated 25,000 daily Port Authority riders. The politically less poweful poor who can't afford cars are being triaged by our elected officials in favor of other spending priorities like pay raises, stadiums, expressways and of course studies and audits. Over the past decade the Port Authority has been underfunded by tens of millions of dollars by the same legislators in Harrisburg who enacted loopholes for the utility companies to avoid paying their mandated share (PURTA). The county has left millions of dollars in match money on the table while offering visions of property tax relief, etc. The Port Authority has to come up with a balanced budget no matter what our elected "representatives" claim is a higher calling for our tax dollars.

The public transportation ridership is much larger than the number of people attending sports events. If we have to decide between sports and necessities like public transportation, the choice is obvious. But we shouldn't have to choose. We should be talking about making our county wealthier with investment in developing sustainable technologies, not assuming that we have a smaller amount of money to work with and so can't afford one or the other.

It's a quality of life issue for all of us.